China’s population fell last year for the third year in a row, the Chinese government said on Friday, pointing to further demographic challenges for the world’s second most populous nation, which is now facing both an aging population and a growing shortage of working-age people.

China’s population at the end of 2024 was 1.408 billion, a decrease of 1.39 million compared to the previous year.

The figures released by the government in Beijing follow trends around the world, but especially in East Asia, where Japan, South Korea and other nations have seen their birthrates decline. China three years ago it joined Japan and most of Eastern Europe among other nations whose populations are declining.

In many cases, the reasons are similar: the rising cost of living is causing young people to delay or exclude marriage and childbearing while they seek higher education and careers. Although people are living longer, it is not enough to keep up with the birth rate.

Countries like China, which allow very little immigration, are particularly at risk.

China has long been among the world’s most populous nations, enduring invasions, floods and other natural disasters to sustain a population that subsisted on rice in the south and wheat in the north. After the end of World War II and the rise of the Communist Party to power in 1949, large families reappeared and the population doubled in just three decades, even after tens of millions died in the Great Leap Forward that sought to revolutionize agriculture and industry and the cultural revolution that followed a few years later.

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After the end of the Cultural Revolution and the death of leader Mao Zedong, communist bureaucrats became concerned that the country’s population was outgrowing its ability to feed itself and began implementing a draconian “one-child policy.” Although it was never the law, women had to apply for permission to have a child, and violators could face forced late-term abortions and birth control procedures, large fines, and the possibility of having their child stripped of their identification number, which actually makes non-citizens .

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Rural China, where the preference for male progeny was particularly strong and where two children were still allegedly allowed, became the focus of the government’s efforts, with women forced to produce proof they were menstruating and buildings emblazoned with slogans such as “have fewer children, have better children.”

The government sought to eradicate the selective abortion of female children, but with abortions legal and readily available, those operating illegal sonograms enjoyed a thriving business.

This was the biggest factor in China’s skewed sex ratio, with millions of boys born for every 100 girls, raising the possibility of social instability among China’s army of bachelors. Friday’s report put the gender imbalance at 104.34 men for every 100 women, although independent groups believe the imbalance is significantly higher.

Even more troubling to the government was the drastic decline in the birth rate, with China’s total population falling for the first time in decades in 2023, and China narrowly overtaking India as the world’s most populous nation in the same year. The rapid aging of the population, the reduction of the labor force, the lack of consumer markets and migration abroad are putting the system under serious pressure.

While spending on the military and flashy infrastructure projects continues to rise, China’s already weak social security system is faltering, with increasing numbers of Chinese refusing to pay into an underfunded pension system.

Already, more than one fifth of the population is 60 or older, and the official figure is 310.3 million or 22% of the total population. By 2035, that number is predicted to exceed 30%, sparking debate over changes to the official retirement age, which is one of the lowest in the world. With fewer students, some empty schools and kindergartens are meanwhile being converted into care facilities for the elderly.

Such developments lend some credence to the aphorism that China, now the world’s second largest economy but facing major obstacles, will “get old before it gets rich.”

State incentives including cash payments for having up to three children and financial assistance for housing costs had only temporary effects.

Meanwhile, China continued its transition to an urban society, with 10 million more people moving to cities with an urbanization rate of 67%, up nearly a percentage point from the previous year.

© 2025 The Canadian Press