China's population falls for a third straight year, posing challenges for its government and economy
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The world’s second most populous nation that is now facing both an aging population and an emerging shortage of working age people able to support their elders.

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China’s population fell last year for the third straight year, its government said Friday, pointing to further demographic challenges for the world’s second most populous nation, which is now facing both an aging population and an emerging shortage of working age people.

China’s population stood at 1.408 billion at the end of 2024, a decline of 1.39 million from the previous year.

The figures announced by the government in Beijing follow trends worldwide, but especially in East Asia, where Japan, South Korea and other nations have seen their birth rates plummet. China three years ago joined Japan and most of Eastern Europe among other nations whose population is falling.

The reasons are in many cases similar: Rising costs of living are causing young people to put off or rule out marriage and child birth while pursuing higher education and careers. While people are living longer, that’s not enough to keep up with rate of new births.

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  • thelucky8@beehaw.orgOPEnglish
    3·
    1 day ago

    Yes, the effects for these “illegal” children were devastating (and so are the consequences for the whole niw(.

    There many good reports on that. For those interested, here are two. But as @qyron said, it is a nightmare.

    Telling the Stories of China’s “Illegal Children”: Shen Yang and Roseann Lake in Conversation – (2021)

    "Excess-birth” or “illegal” children (usually girls) were those born to a family who already had a child during the years when China’s one-child policy, in force from the 1980s to 2015, restricted a woman’s births to one. Traditional preferences for boys meant that many tried to circumvent the law to produce a son and heir; many of these excess births resulted in forced abortions, abandonment, and even foreign adoption. However, numerous second, third, and even fourth daughters did survive in China and, as Shen Yang (herself an excess-birth child) relates, grew up to suffer the consequences of their illegal status.

    China’s Hidden Children – (2015)

    It might seem impossible that 13 million children could escape the notice of the central Chinese government, but this is exactly what was revealed in the 2010 census. A population the size of a small country has been denied birth registration and the corresponding proof of identity known as the hukou (household registration) by local Chinese governments. This document is usually necessary for children to access education.

    Most of these children were born to parents that had broken the “one-child policy,” a policy enforcing birthing restriction for all Chinese citizens