22:49 11 May 2021
China has experienced slowest population growth in decades
China's population increased by 5.38 percent to 1.41 billion in the last decade, according to the data presented from the official census of 2020. This is the slowest rate of population growth since the 1950s.
The presentation of population statistics means that Beijing has almost reached the 2016 target of increasing the population to 1.42 billion by 2020. By comparison, on the occasion of the 2010 census, population growth was 5.84 percent to 1.35 billion people.
Five years ago, the authorities relaxed the decades-old family planning policy, commonly referred to as the ‘one-child policy,’ and allowed all Chinese to have two descendants.
Census data show that last year the fertility rate was 1.3 children per woman. Similar indicators are recorded by Italy and Japan, countries struggling with an aging population.
The representative of the National Bureau of Statistics (Ning Jizhe) said at a press conference on the presentation of the data that "given the trend of population development in recent years, population growth will continue to slow down in the future."
"The total population of China is estimated to remain at 1.4 billion in the near future," he added.
