"For many decades, the Chinese government attempted to limit population growth through a one-child policy - only to abolish the rule in 2016 as it realized that the number of annual births had started to plummet at alarming levels. The aggressive policy - alongside other extreme measures - succeeded far too well, with birth rates dropping a staggering 17 percent between 2024 and 2025 to the lowest level since 1949."
"The country's population is now actively shrinking each year, and it's hard to imagine how the trend could be reversed. The situation has gotten so dire that Beijing eliminated tax incentives on condoms, hormonal birth control, and other contraceptives, as Fortune reports. Basically, it's now desperately trying to reverse itself out of a fertility crisis of its own doing. President Xi Jinping has practically been pleading with the country's women to bear more children."
"Yet fewer and fewer women thereare interested in raising a family, sending China well below the " replacement rate" of 2.1 children per woman, meaning the government's interventions are doing little to address the issue. Many countries around the world, including most of North and South America, and Europe, are already experiencing below-replacement fertility rates. The situation playing out in China is a preview for what's still to come in many other regions projected to experience a similar decline."
Decades of strict population-control measures culminated in a sharp fertility collapse, with births falling 17 percent between 2024 and 2025 to the lowest level since 1949. The national population is now shrinking each year and the number of working-age people is declining. The government has removed tax incentives on contraceptives and publicly encouraged higher birth rates, but incentives appear ineffective as fewer women choose to raise families and fertility remains well below the 2.1 replacement rate. Other regions already face below-replacement fertility, indicating that similar demographic and economic pressures may spread globally. Social trends reflect rising singlehood and loneliness amid the decline.
Read at Futurism
Unable to calculate read time
Collection
[
|
...
]