Working-age population to shrink 23% by 2050

China’s working-age population will shrink by more than 23 percent to around 700 million by the year 2050, a human resources ministry official said Friday.

The size of the working-age population – those aged 16 to 59 – has been declining since 2012 and is expected to reach 830 million in 2030, Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security spokesperson Li Zhong said at a news conference.

The figure will then see a “sharp decline” after 2030, shrinking by 7.6 million each year on average, Li said.

China’s working-age population dropped by 4.87 million to 910.96 million in 2015, according to the National Bureau of Statistics.

Amid growing pressure from an aging population and a decrease in the working-age population, China abandoned its decades-old one-child policy in 2015, allowing all couples to have a second child.