Overpopulated Country Sees First Slowdown in Birth Rate

China, the world’s most populous country, is experiencing a slowdown in births, a first since the 1960s, and according to predictions, the Asian nation is expected to see its population decline over the next decades to be half what is it today in 2100.

Over four decades, the population of China went from 660 million to 1.4 billion. The latest figures from the National Bureau of Statistics of China show that in 2021, the population went from 1.41212 billion to 1.41260 billion, a record low increase of 480,000 births.

From 1980 to 2016, China enforced a one-child policy, and last year, it has introduced a three-child policy, but women are reluctant to have children for different reasons, including the rising cost of living, and the increasing marriage age which delays births and dampens the desire to have children. Also, families have grown accustomed to raising small families. According to the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences, after 2021, the annual average is expected to decline at an annual average rate of 1.1%, meaning that in 2100, the population is expected to be 587 million, less than half of what it is today.