China’s Birth Rate Descends For A Fifth Straight Year

China’s birth rate fell for a fifth consecutive year to hit a new record low in 2021, despite government’s effort to encourage couples to have more children in the face of a looming demographic crisis.

The world’s most populous nation recorded 10.62 million births in 2021, or just 7.5 births per 1,000 individuals, as indicated by China’s National Bureau of Statistics. This record denotes the least level since the founding of Communist China in 1949.

The number of births was enough to exceed deaths, with the populace growing by 480,000 to 1.4126 billion. The average growth rate tumbled to 0.034%, the least since China’s incredible starvation from 1959 to 1961, which killed huge number of people and prompted a populace decrease.

New births in 2021 dropped 11.6% from 12.02 million out of 2020 – a decay than the 18% dive that year, from 14.65 million in 2019. Chinese demographers have cautioned that assuming the descending pattern proceeds, China’s populace could shrink soon.

As per the country’s National Bureau of Statistics, the decrease in births originated from a blend of variables, from a decrease in the number of women of childbearing age, a continued decline in fertility, changes in attitudes toward childbearing and delays of marriage by young people, and surprisingly because of the pandemic.

The plunging rate of birth comes as the Chinese government slopes up efforts to urge families to have more kids, subsequent to understanding its long term one-kid policy had added to a quickly maturing populace and contracting labor force that could seriously worry the nation’s economic and social security.

For quite a long time, local legislatures forced many women to cut short pregnancies considering it illicit by the state under the one-child policy. Now, they are producing a whirlwind of promulgation mottos and approaches to support more births. The common incentives include cash handouts, real estate subsidies and extension of maternity leave.

But the policies have failed to convince many women, who worry they’ll be further disadvantaged as companies seek to avoid the extra financial burden. The high cost of raising children is also deterring parents from having more of them, especially among the country’s growing middle class.