China announces the first population decline in recent times

BEIJING (AP) — China has announced its first overall population decline in recent years amid an aging society and plunging birthrate.

According to the National Bureau of Statistics 850,000 people were less in 2022 than the previous year. It only counts the population of mainland China, but excludes Hong Kong, Macao, and Taiwan that is self-governing.

According to the bureau, this leaves a total of 1.4111.75 billion with 9.56 million births and 10.41 million deaths.

The bureau reported that men continue to outnumber women by 722.06 millions to 689.69million. This is due to the abandoned one-child policy, and the traditional preference for male offspring to continue the family name.

China has been the world’s most populous country for many years, but India is poised to overtake it.

China’s last population decline is thought to have occurred during the Great Leap Forward in the 1950s. This was Mao Zedon’s disastrous drive for collective agriculture and industrialization, which resulted in a massive famine that killed tens of thousands of people.