China’s population growth slowest in decades
Data released in China’s seventh national census on Tuesday revealed that the country’s population growth has been its slowest in decades, with an average growth rate of 0.53% over past 10 years.
CAPE TOWN, May 11 (ANA) – Data released in China’s seventh national census on Tuesday revealed that the country’s population growth has been its slowest in decades, with an average growth rate of 0.53% over the past 10 years.
According to Xinhua, the official state-run press agency of China, the data collected by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) last year showed that China’s mainland population has reached 1.41178 billion.
Head of the NBS, Ning Jizhe, said China’s population will remain above 1.4 billion “for a certain period in future” and that the growth rate was also affected by factors such as age structure, government population policies, medical services and younger generations’ ideas on having children.
“China’s population will peak in future, but there remains uncertainty as to when specifically it will happen,” Ning said.
“Based on the demographical trend in recent years, China’s population growth will continue to slow down,” he said.
China’s growth rate dropped lower from the average growth between the years 2000 and 2010, which was at 0.57%.
The BBC reported that the once-a-decade census, which was originally expected to be released in April, was conducted by around seven million census takers who went door-to-door to collect the information.
In 2016, the Chinese government ended its one-child policy and allowed couples to have two children; however, this failed to have a long-term impact on reversing the falling birth rate.
“While the second-child policy had a positive impact on the birth rate, it proved short-term in nature,” said Yue Su, a principal economist from the Economist Intelligence Unit.
The population growth figure does not include Hong Kong, Taiwan, Macao or foreigners living on the mainland.
– African News Agency (ANA); Editing by Yaron Blecher
