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China’s population declined for a second consecutive year in 2023 due to a low birth rate and a wave of Covid-19 deaths, as indicated by the latest official data from the country’s National Bureau of Statistics (NBS). China was overtaken by India as the most populous country in the world last year.

“By the end of 2023, the national population was 1,409.67 million… a decrease of 2.08 million over that at the end of 2022,” NBS said on Wednesday as Beijing tries to boost the falling birth rates through subsidies and pro-fertility measures.

China, which saw steady population growth for decades, lost 850,000 people in 2022 when its population shrank for the first time since 1960. Last year’s decline was well above this, news agency Reuters reported.

“In 2023, the number of births was 9.02 million with a birth rate of 6.39 per thousand,” down from 9.56 million births in 2022, the Bureau of Statistics said.

Last year, when China experienced a nationwide Covid surge, the total deaths rose 6.6 per cent to 11.1 million, with the death rate reaching the highest level since 1974 during the Cultural Revolution.

New births fell 5.7 per cent to 9.02 million and the birth rate was a record low 6.39 births per 1,000 people, down from a rate of 6.77 births in 2022, the official data shows.

The birth rate in the country has been plummeting for decades as a result of the ‘one-child policy’ implemented from 1980 to 2015. However, in 2016, the Chinese government decided to scrap the policy and started allowing couples to have three children in 2021. The authorities then adopted measures to boost the birth rate to reverse the demographic decline and ageing population due to the one-child policy.

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