For the first time in seven decades, China's birth rate fell to a record low last year, according to a fresh report released by the country's National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) on Tuesday.
The data indicates that deaths in the country outnumbered births, with the overall population decreasing by 850,000 people to 1.4118 billion in 2022, down from 1.4126 billion a year earlier.
The demographic downturn could be the result of the country's strict one-child policy, imposed in 1980 due to fears of overpopulation, and scrapped only in 2015. For the past several years, the South Asian giant has been encouraging citizens to have more children, namely with such steps including tax deductions, longer maternity leave, and housing subsidies.
As a result, China will have 1.41175 billion people at the end of 2022, compared with 1.41260 billion a year earlier, the report predicts.
The country's lowest birth rate on record in 2022 was 6.77 births per 1,000 people, in 2021, it was 7.52 births.
China also reported its highest mortality rate since 1976, registering 7.37 deaths per 1,000 people compared with a rate of 7.18 deaths in 2021.
Cai Fang, vice-chairman of the Agriculture and Rural Affairs Committee of the National People’s Congress, said that the country's population "reached its peak" last year — much earlier that predicted.