China’s birth rate falls to its lowest in 70 years
China’s repealing of its one-child policy seem to have had the opposite effect of what it was hoping. The country is seeing its lowest birth rate in 70 years.
The birth rate was 10.48 per thousand in 2019. This is the lowest its been since 1949, according to the National Bureau of Statistics.
The number of babies born in 2019 dropped by 580,000 to 14.65 million.But despite the birth rate falling, the country now has a lower death rate. This meant China’s population hit 1.4 billion in 2019, inching up from 1.39 billion.
The country’s birth rate has been falling for years, and this is posing a challenge for the world’s second biggest economy.
The falling birth rate has ignited fears of a “demographic timebomb”. This is a smaller working-age population having to support a bigger, retired population.
The Chinese government officially ended it’s one-child policy in 2015, after 35 years of rigorous enforcement. It’s new policy now allows couples to have two children.
