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China’s birth rate hits record low: A demographic crisis unfolds
The Star
|January 20, 2026
CHINAS birth rate plunged last year to its lowest level on record, official data showed yesterday, as its population shrank for a fourth straight year despite efforts to curb the decline.
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It is now threatened with a demographic crisis after its birth rate halved over the past decade, despite the end of the restrictive “one-child” policy.
There were just 7.92 million births recorded last year, Chinese officials said on Monday, a rate of 5.63 births per thousand people.
It was the lowest birth rate since National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) records began in 1949 - the year Communist leader Mao Zedong declared the founding of the People’s Republic of China.
The UN has predicted that China's population could fall from around 1.4 billion today to 800 million by 2100, even though it has taken measures to boost fertility rates.
Births fell by 1.62 million in 2025, a drop of 17% year-on-year, NBS data showed.
This story is from the January 20, 2026 edition of The Star.
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