China Population

China's population fell by 1.39 million to 1.408 billion in 2024, marking the third consecutive year of decline, following a 2.08 million drop in 2023, despite a slight increase in births. In 2024, the number of births reached 9.54 million, 520,000 more than the previous year, but the number of deaths was 10.93 million. However, this was the second-lowest number of births since the founding of the People’s Republic of China in 1949. The number of newborns has been steadily falling since the 1960s, except for a brief uptick in 2016 when the government relaxed its one-child policy. China had long been the most populous country, but decades of restrictive family planning policies, rising childcare costs, and changing social norms have significantly slowed its birth rate.