China's population continues to decline. The birth rate, at its lowest level since the communist revolution, despite the measures taken by the authorities
Tiananmen Square in Beijing. PHOTO: xiaoyong | Dreamstime.com
China's birth rate in 2025 reached an unprecedented low since the Communist Party took power in 1949, despite measures taken by the authorities to boost it. The country's population has fallen for the fourth year in a row, according to the BBC and Politico.
Government data released on Monday showed the birth rate fell to 5.63 per thousand people, the lowest since 1949, the year Mao Zedong's Communists ousted the Nationalists from power. No such figures are available for the period of the nationalist government.
The country's population will shrink by 3.39 million in 2025, reaching 1.404 billion by the end of the year.
China overtaken by India
China was the world's most populous country until 2023, when it was officially overtaken by India, and Monday's statistics illustrate the demographic pressures the country is facing.
With an aging population and a sluggish economy, China has gone to great lengths to encourage young people to start families.
A decade after ending the one-child policy, authorities are promoting a range of ideas and measures to boost the birth rate, tactics ranging from cash subsidies to condom taxes.
The number of newborns was 7.92 million in 2025, down 1.62 million, or 17%, from the previous year. By 2023, the birth rate had declined for seven consecutive years, and in 2024 there was a slight increase.
According to Politico, most Chinese families cite the cost and pressure of raising a child in a highly competitive society as significant obstacles, obstacles that seem even greater now that an economic recession has hit households.
Another potential factor in the data is that 2025 was the Year of the Snake, considered one of the least favorable years to have a baby in the Chinese zodiac, Politico writes. However, the government's official news agency, Xinhua, declared earlier this year that the Snake was “getting rid of its negative connotations.”
Like many other countries in Asia, China has faced a declining fertility rate. This is the average number a woman is expected to have. Although the government does not regularly release data on this, the rate was 1.3 in 2020, and experts estimate it is now around 1. Both numbers are well below the 2.1 level needed to keep China's population at its current size.
PHOTO: xiaoyong | Dreamstime.com
