Aging factory

Context:  

• China’s population decline can have devastating effect on its growth and world must learn from its journey and consequences of population dynamics.

The story of China’s population decline:

• Background: During the Mao’s era and communist policies, china faced a severe famine and its last population decline in 1961.
• Efforts for social stability: As China saw a continuous growth in its population for several decades; it imposed restrictions on its citizens for family planning and methods.
• The recent estimates: The shrinking of the world’s most populous country by as much as 8, 50,000 in 2022 marks a watershed moment with lasting consequences for China and the world.

Observed reasons:

• China’s one-child policy of 1980: Births in China has dropped in 2022 by more than 10% to 9.56 million, with 10.41 million deaths as China has spent the greater part of two decades trying and failing, to get families to boost birth rates that have been declining.
• Fewer children due to financial strain: A government survey found that 70% would not have more children citing financial reasons.
• Falling fertility rate: China reached this inflection point faster, with its fertility rate falling from 2.74 to 1.28 in the preceding four-decade period.