A historic shift.. China's population decreased for the first time in sixty years

Weather of Arabia - China's population shrank in 2022 for the first time in six decades, which is a historical shift that is expected to be the beginning of a long period of decline in the number of its citizens, and India has become the first candidate to be the first country in the world in terms of population in the year 2023.

Analysts said that this decline is the first since 1961 during the great famine caused by the big jump during the reign of former leader Mao Zedong.

And the Chinese National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) announced during a press conference, Tuesday, about the annual data, that the population declined in 2022 to 1.411 billion, a decrease of about 850,000 people from the previous year, in a new indication of the worsening demographic crisis in the country with its great repercussions. slowing its economy.

Last year's birth rate was 6.77 births per 1,000 people, down from a birth rate of 7.52 births in 2021, the lowest birth rate ever, according to Reuters.

China also recorded the highest death rate since 1974, with 7.37 deaths per 1,000 people, compared to an average of 7.18 deaths in 2021.

One child policy

Much of the population decline is due to China's one-child policy between 1980 and 2015, as well as prohibitive education costs that have deterred many Chinese from having more than one child or even one child at all.

In 2015, Beijing scrapped the highly controversial "one-child" policy, realizing that the restrictive policy contributed to a rapidly aging population and shrinking workforce that could severely weaken the country's economic and social stability.

The Chinese government has been seeking for several years to encourage people to have more children, and to ward off the looming demographic crisis caused by an aging population.

The new policies sought to ease the financial and social burdens of child-rearing, or to actively stimulate childbearing through subsidies and tax breaks.

Policymakers eased restrictions on childbearing in 2021, allowing three children to be born, and redoubled efforts to encourage larger families, but these efforts have been difficult in light of differing gender norms after decades of one-child policy, the high cost of living, and looming economic uncertainty. In sight.