Chinese residents not surprised by second-year population decline

Record ID: 1761553

  • Title: Chinese residents not surprised by second-year population decline
  • Date: 17th January 2024
  • Summary: HARBIN, HEILONGJIANG PROVINCE, CHINA (FILE - FEBRUARY 10, 2023) (REUTERS) CHILDREN FEEDING PIGEONS IN SQUARE CHILD FOLLOWING PIGEON CHILD FEEDING PIGEON SHANGHAI, CHINA (FILE - FEBRUARY 28, 2023) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF PARENTS AND GRANDPARENTS PICKING CHILDREN FROM SCHOOL SHANGHAI, CHINA (FILE - MARCH 2, 2023) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF CONFINEMENT CARE TRAINING CLASS IN PROGRESS
  • Embargoed: 31st January 2024 05:35
  • Keywords: Beijing China Population birth rate children decline residents
  • Location: BEIJING, SHANGHAI, HARBIN, CHINA
  • City: BEIJING, SHANGHAI, HARBIN, CHINA
  • Country: China
  • Topics: Asia / Pacific,Government/Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVA004294817012024RP1
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: Residents in China’s capital Beijing on Wednesday (January 17) said they were not surprised after recently unveiled data showed that China's population fell for a second consecutive year in 2023.
    China’s National Bureau of Statistics said the total number of people in China dropped by 2.08 million, or 0.15%, to 1.409 billion in 2023, which was well above the population decline of 850,000 in 2022, which had been the first since 1961 during the Great Famine of the Mao Zedong era.
    Beijing resident Wang Weidong said that even if the government enacted policies and incentives to fend off the decline, he believed those aren’t enough to produce success in the long run.
    “I think some of these are useful, but people aren’t going to have children just because of these incentives. Those incentives are supplementary, but they aren’t the root cause (for people to have more children). So think it’s really hard to reverse this trend,” said Wang after three years of tight screening and quarantine measures kept the virus largely contained until authorities abruptly lifted curbs in December 2022.
    Local governments have announced various measures to encourage childbirth including tax deductions, longer maternity leave and housing subsidies.
    But many of the policies have not been implemented due to insufficient funding and a lack of motivation by local governments, said a Beijing policy institute, urging a unified nationwide family subsidy scheme instead.
    Total deaths last year rose 6.6% to 11.1 million after China's abrupt end to its zero-COVID policy at the end of 2022, with the death rate reaching the highest level since 1974 during the Cultural Revolution
    (Production: Alessandro Diviggiano, Joseph Campbell)
  • Copyright Holder: FILE REUTERS (CAN SELL)
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