BEIJING: According to officials, China’s population will start to decline by 2025 as people age and family sizes decrease.
With a workforce that is rapidly getting older, an economy that is slowing, and its weakest population growth in decades, the country with the largest population in the world has been battling a looming demographic crisis.By 2025
Additionally, despite government officials loosening the country’s strict “one-child policy” in 2016 and allowing couples to have three children last year, the birth rate has fallen to a record low.
The National Health Commission stated on Monday that the population’s growth rate has significantly slowed and will eventually experience negative growth during the “14th Five-Year Plan” period, which runs from 2021 to 2025.
Authorities stated that forecasts indicated that the population would experience zero growth “or even negative growth” over the course of that five-year period in January.By 2025
The NHC stated in its most recent report that “currently, our country’s policy system for childbirth support is not perfect, and there is a big gap between population development and the people’s expectations.”
The country is anticipated to enter a stage of severe ageing around 2035, with more than 30 percent of the population older than 60, and the total fertility rate has fallen below 1.3 in recent years.
The health commission called for better child-raising support as well as policies on housing, education, and taxation to help reduce burdens on families because families are also getting smaller, “weakening” the functions of pension and childcare.
By 2025
In an effort to combat the slowing birth rate, authorities are already enacting family-friendly laws in some regions of China.
Families with three children will be permitted to borrow 20% more than the maximum amount when applying for housing provident fund loans for the first time, the eastern city of Hangzhou announced on Monday.
According to state media, additional cities have also implemented supportive policies. These include Nanchang and Changsha.
The lower birthrate has been attributed to higher living expenses as well as a cultural shift brought on by people becoming accustomed to smaller families.By 2025
Deng Xiaoping, the country’s paramount leader, implemented the “one-child policy” in 1980 with some exceptions made for rural families and ethnic minorities in order to slow population growth and foster economic development.
According to UN estimates, the world’s population will reach eight billion in November 2022, with India on track to overtake China as the world’s most populous nation in 2023.
