The Citizen (Gauteng)

1.4bn-strong China wants more babies

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– China’s population has grown more than 5% over the past decade to pass 1.4 billion people, Beijing said yesterday, as it unveiled its census results.

China’s birthrate has been in steady decline since 2017, despite Beijing’s relaxation of the decades-old “one-child policy” in order to try and avert a looming demographi­c crisis.

Ning Jizhe, an official from the National Bureau of Statistics, said

“the data showed that the population of China maintained a mild growth momentum in the past decade”.

The increase of 5.4% over the last 10 years comes amid fears that an ageing population and a slowing birth rate pose a looming demographi­c crisis for the country. China conducts a census every 10 years to determine population growth, movement patterns and other trends.

The 2020 survey was completed in December with the help of seven million volunteers who surveyed residents door-to-door.

Beijing changed family planning rules in 2016, to allow families to have two children as fears grew about China’s fast-ageing population and shrinking workforce. But there has been growing concern that the policy change is yet to produce the expected baby boom. –

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