China's Population Declines 3.39 Million in 2025

China's population declined for the fourth consecutive year in 2025, dropping by 3.39 million to 1.405 billion, as births fell to a record low of 7.92 million, according to official data from the National Bureau of Statistics. The figure marked a 17 percent decrease from 9.54 million births in 2024 and represented the lowest number since records began in 1949. Deaths rose to 11.31 million, pushing the birth rate to 5.63 per 1,000 people, the lowest in decades.

The decline underscores a deepening demographic crisis in the world's second-largest economy, where the fertility rate stands at about one child per woman, well below the 2.1 needed for population stability. Officials have attributed the trend to a combination of factors, including the lingering effects of the one-child policy enforced from 1980 to 2015, which limited most families to a single offspring through fines, forced abortions, and sterilizations. That policy, aimed at curbing rapid growth amid fears of resource strain, was eased to allow two children per couple in 2016 and three in 2021. Yet births continued to fall, even as the number of women of reproductive age shrank by 16 million between 2020 and 2025.