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China recorded its third straight year of population decline in 2024, despite the country's first increase in births in nearly a decade in a year traditionally considered auspicious.
Figures released on Friday by the National Bureau of Statistics showed the country recorded 9.54 million births in 2024, trailing 10.93 million deaths, but saw a rise from 9 million births last year as Chinese families celebrated the Year of the Dragon, believed to be an auspicious zodiac sign.
This increase was the first increase in births since 2016, and left the country with a total population of 1.408 billion people. India will overtake China in 2023 as the world's most populous country.
China's population, which fell in 2022, declined for the first time in 2022 Six decadesstems from a 1980s policy — which ended in 2016 — that limited most couples to having just one child, less than the average of 2.1 needed for the population to remain stable.
Analysts say birth rates have also fallen due to economic pressures as the country struggles with slowing growth.
Policymakers are seeking alternatives such as automation and robotics to maintain high levels of productivity, as well as seeking to encourage couples to have more children through a combination of Subsidies, tax breaks and sycophancy.
