Daily Times

BEIJING: Chinese population Officials say it will begin to shrink by 2025 as family sizes get smaller and citizens age.

The world’s most populous country is struggling with a demographic crisis as it faces a rapidly aging workforce, a slowing economy, and its weakest population growth for many decades.

And although officials have relaxed the strictness of the nation “one-child policy“In 2016 and last year allowing couples to have three children, the birth rate fell to a record low.

“The rate of growth of the total population has slowed significantly and will enter a period of negative growth during the ’14th Five-Year Plan’ period,” the National Health Commission said on Monday, referring to period from 2021 to 2025.

In January, authorities said that forecasts expected the population to enter zero growth “or even negative growth” in that five-year span.

“Presently, our country’s policy system for childbirth support is not perfect, and there is a big gap with population development and the people’s expectations,” the NHC said in its latest report.

The total fertility rate has dropped below 1.3 in recent years, it added, while the country is expected to enter a stage of severe ageing around 2035, with more than 30 percent of the population older than 60.

Families are also becoming smaller, “weakening” the functions of pension and childcare, the health commission said, calling for improving child-raising support and for policies on housing, education, and taxation to help reduce burdens on families.

Authorities in some parts of China are already introducing family-friendly policies in a bid to combat the slowing birth rate.

The eastern city of Hangzhou announced on Monday that families with three children will be able to borrow 20% more than the maximum limit when applying for a housing assistance fund loan for the first time.

Other cities such as Nanchang and Changsha have also introduced supportive policies, according to state media. A higher cost of living and a cultural shift as people become more accustomed to smaller families have been thought to be the reasons behind the lower number of babies.

The “one-child policy” was introduced in 1980 by top leader Deng Xiaoping to curb population growth and promote economic development, with some exceptions for rural families and the elderly. ethnic minority.

The population wants to ask is expected to reach 8 billion by November 2022, according to United Nations projections, and India will of course overtake China to become the world’s most populous country by 2023.