Eva Deschamps / August 2, 2022
China's population will begin to fall by 2025, despite the end of the one-child policy meant to encourage births in the world's most populous country, the health ministry said.
The Asian country is facing a demographic crisis with a rapidly aging workforce, an economic slowdown and the country's slowest population growth in decades.
Last year, the birth rate hit an all-time low and this trend is set to continue.
The population growth rate has slowed down considerably. It will enter a phase of negative growth during the 14th Five-Year Plan (2021-2025), the Ministry of Health warned in a report Monday.
China has relaxed its birth control policy in recent years. It allowed couples to have two children starting in 2016, and then three since last year.
But these decisions have not led to a birth boom. Couples are chilled by the rising cost of living, housing and especially child rearing.
Our policy on birth assistance is imperfect, there is a large gap in relation to the situation of demographic development and the expectations of the population, said the Ministry of Health.
To encourage births, the ministry advocates reducing the financial pressure on couples through housing, education and tax policies.
For example, since Monday, the large city of Hangzhou (east) has been offering families with three children larger loans for the purchase of their first home.
In 2021, China recorded 10.62 million births, their lowest level since at least 1978, according to official data.