China’s National Bureau of Statistics reports that China’s population declined by 2 million in 2023, doubling the loss of 2022.
More importantly, 2023 saw a continuing dearth of births, dropping to 9 million from 9.5 million in 2022.
Deaths exceeded births, at 11.1 million, in 2023.
The total fertility rate (the average number of births to women of child-bearing years) dropped to nearly 1.00, less than half the 2.10 required to maintain the population. Birth rates are lower today than during the brutish one-child policy.
In 2015, the one-child policy was repealed, with births rising to 17.86 million in 2016. (https://www.statista.com/
