China's birth rate falls to lowest on record

BEIJING

S) A woman takes a photo of a baby in front of an installation celebrating the upcoming National Day and the 20th Communist Party Congress at Tiananmen Square in Beijing on Sept. 29, 2022. (AFP)

China's birth rate plunged last year to its lowest level on record, official data showed Monday, as its population shrank for a fourth straight year despite efforts to curb the decline.

It is now threatened with a demographic crisis after its birth rate halved over the past decade, despite the end of the restrictive "one-child" policy.

There were just 7.92 million births recorded last year, Chinese officials said Monday, a rate of 5.63 births per thousand people.

It was the lowest birth rate since National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) records began in 1949, the year Communist leader Mao Zedong declared the founding of the People's Republic of China.

The United Nations has predicted that China's population could fall from around 1.4 billion today to 800 million by 2100, even though it has taken measures to boost fertility rates.

Births fell by 1.62 million in 2025, a drop of 17 percent year-on-year, NBS data showed.

China's population also fell by 3.39 million people last year compared to 2024, extending the annual decline that began in 2022.

The government has scrambled to boost marriage and fertility rates, offering childcare subsidies and taxing condoms as it grapples with a rapidly ageing population.

China also recorded 11.31 million deaths in 2025, a mortality rate of 8.04 per thousand, leading to a population decline of 2.41 per thousand, NBS data showed.

Marriage rates are also at record low, with many young Chinese couples put off from having babies by high child-rearing costs and career concerns.