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China population shrinks for first time in over 60 years: official data

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Agence France-Presse

<div class="embed-wrap"><figure data-feedback="fb:likes,fb:comments"><img alt="Passengers wearing face masks walk with their luggage in front of the Beijing Railway Station in Beijing, China on Jan. 10, 2023. Wu Hao, EPA-EFE" src="https://sa.kapamilya.com/absnews/abscbnnews/media/2023/tvpatrol/01/17/20230110-china-travel-beijing-epa-1.jpg"/><figcaption><br/>Passengers wearing face masks walk with their luggage in front of the Beijing Railway Station in Beijing, China on Jan. 10, 2023. <em>Wu Hao, EPA-EFE</em></figcaption></figure></div><p>BEIJING — China&#x27;s population shrank last year for the first time in more than six decades, official data showed Tuesday, as the world&#x27;s most populous nation faces a looming demographic crisis.</p><p>The country of 1.4 billion has seen birth rates plunge to record lows as its workforce ages, a rapid decline that analysts warn could stymie economic growth and pile pressure on strained public coffers.</p><p>&quot;By the end of 2022, the national population was 1,411.75 million,&quot; Beijing&#x27;s National Bureau of Statistics said, adding it was a &quot;decrease of 0.85 million over that at the end of 2021.&quot;</p><p>The last time China&#x27;s population declined was in 1960, as the country battled the worst famine in its modern history, caused by Mao Zedong&#x27;s disastrous agricultural policy known as the Great Leap Forward.</p><p>China ended its strict &quot;one-child policy&quot; -- imposed in the 1980s due to fears of overpopulation -- in 2016, and in 2021 began allowing couples to have 3 children.</p><p>But that has failed to reverse the demographic decline. </p><ul class="op-related-articles">	<li><a href="https://news.abs-cbn.com/overseas/11/07/22/world-population-at-8-billion-humans-and-still-growing">World population at 8 billion humans -- and still growing</a></li>	<li><a href="https://news.abs-cbn.com/spotlight/11/08/22/how-earths-population-exploded">How Earth&#x27;s population exploded</a></li></ul><div><strong>© Agence France-Presse</strong></div>

China's population shrank last year for the first time in more than 6 decades, official data showed Tuesday. 