China population: China’s population continued to contract in 2025, marking the fourth consecutive year of decline and underscoring how difficult it has been for authorities to reverse falling birth rates even after dismantling decades of strict family-planning rules.
Official figures released showed the country’s population slipped to about 1.404 billion, roughly 3 million fewer people than the year before. China, once the world’s most populous nation, lost that status to India in 2023, and the latest data suggest the demographic gap is continuing to widen.
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Birth numbers dropped sharply. Just under 8 million babies were born last year, a fall of about 17% from 2024. The birth rate declined to 5.63 births per 1,000 people, the lowest level recorded since the founding of modern China in 1949. The data also show that a modest uptick in births reported the previous year did not signal a lasting turnaround.
The slowdown reflects deep-seated pressures facing younger generations. Many couples point to the high cost of housing, childcare, and education, as well as long working hours and job uncertainty, as reasons for delaying or forgoing parenthood. Those challenges have been compounded by an uneven economic recovery that has squeezed household budgets.
China’s fertility rate, the average number of children a woman is expected to have, has fallen far below the level needed to sustain population growth. While the government no longer releases regular updates, demographers estimate it is now close to one child per woman, well under the replacement benchmark of 2.1.
The demographic shift is increasingly shaping economic policy concerns. More than 320 million people in China are now aged 60 or older, accounting for nearly a quarter of the population. At the same time, the pool of working-age adults is shrinking, raising questions about who will support the growing elderly population in the decades ahead.
In response, the government has rolled out a mix of incentives aimed at encouraging families to have more children. These include direct cash payments to parents, tax exemptions for childcare providers, and support for matchmaking services. Authorities have also made changes to tax policy that affect contraceptives, moves that have sparked debate among public health experts.