Birth rates in 10 Chinese provinces fell below 1% in 2020 for first time in decades: New data
BEIJING: Birth rates in ten Chinese provinces, including Henan - the third most populated province in the country with nearly 100 million people - fell below one percent in 2020 for the first time in decades, new official statistics showed, according to a news report on Tuesday.
The data, released by individual provinces in China, corroborates what central official statistics revealed last November: China’s average birth rate fell below 1% in 2020, marking the lowest rate of childbirth since 1978, according to a report in the Global Times.
The natural growth rate of the population accounted for 1.45 per 1,000 people, also a new low since 1978. China recorded a birth rate of 8.52 per 1,000 people in 2020, according to the China Statistical Yearbook 2020 compiled and released by the National Bureau of Statistics in November, the report said.
According to the fresh statistics provided by the local government, between 1.1 million and 1.2 million births were recorded each year from 2002 to 2010 in Henan, a central Chinese province. “However, its birth rate for the first time fell to 9.24 per 1,000 people in 2020, and the number of new babies was 920,000, also a new low since 1978,” Global Times reported.
The birth rates in some developed regions such as eastern China’s Jiangsu province was below even the national level, falling to 6.66 per 1,000 people. Beijing and Tianjin, a city located some 100km from the capital, saw rates of 6.98 and 5.99 per 1,000 people, respectively, the report said. Other regions, like Guizhou province in the southwest and Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region in the south, saw birth rates above the national average of 8.52 per thousand people, the report said.
Demographers in China say fertility rates are falling because of various reasons, including, but not limited to, an ageing population, changes in people’s choices, and even the upheaval caused by the Covid pandemic.
With inputs from agencies