Number of births in China 2011-2021

According to preliminary data, around 10.62 million babies were born in China in 2021. The number of births has decreased gradually from 17.86 million in 2016.

Demographic development in China

Although the Chinese population has been growing for decades and is still growing at a slow pace, the annual number of births in China has been declining considerably in recent years. To curb the negative effects of an aging population, the Chinese government decided in 2013 to gradually relax the so called one-child-policy, which had been in effect since 1979. From 2016 onwards, parents in China were allowed to have two children in general. However, as the recent figures of births per year reveal, this policy change had only short-term effects on the general birth rate: the number of births slightly increased from 2014 onwards, but then started to fell again in 2018. In 2019, China was still the most populous country in the world, closely followed by India. Yet the large population brings about severe demographic challenges for the country.

China’s aging population

The Chinese society is aging rapidly and facing a serious demographic shift towards older age groups. The median age of China’s population has increased massively from about 19 years in 1970 to 37 years in 2015 and is projected to rise continuously until 2070. In 2010, approximately 12 percent of the Chinese were 60 years and older, a figure that is forecast to rise as high as 36 percent by 2060. This shift in demographic development will increase social and elderly support expenditure of the society as a whole. One measure for this social imbalance is the old-age dependency ratio, measuring the relationship between economic dependent older age groups and the working-age population. The old-age dependency ratio in China is expected to soar to 53 percent in 2060, implying that by then one working-age person will have to support one elderly person.