China records population decline for fourth year in a row

China's population is declining for the fourth year in a row, The Wall Street Journal reports .

According to the National Bureau of Statistics, the country's total population by the end of 2025 was 1.405 billion people, compared to 1.408 billion a year earlier. The number of newborns fell to 7.92 million from 9.54 million in 2024. The birth rate fell to 5.63 per thousand people from 6.77 the previous year. These are the minimum figures since the founding of the PRC in 1949. At the same time, the number of deaths increased from 10.93 million to 11.31 million.

As the publication explains, the sharp drop in the birth rate in 2025 is partly due to a surge in births in the previous period. Much of 2024 fell in the Year of the Dragon, which is considered auspicious for weddings and the birth of children according to Chinese tradition. However, apart from this exception, the birth rate has been declining steadily since 2017, and in 2022, deaths exceeded the number of births for the first time.

The decades-long one-child-per-family policy, only ended in 2015, has led to a rapidly aging population and a below-replacement birth rate, threatening the country's future economic growth. Chinese authorities are launching new programs to stimulate the birth rate, including subsidies for child care, but demographers believe that such measures are no longer able to stop the population decline.

It is noted that, unlike other countries with aging populations, where immigration helps compensate for low birth rates and maintain a young demographic structure, China practically does not accept migrants.

China ended its more than 30-year-old tax exemption for contraceptives on January 1. Condoms and birth control pills are now subject to VAT at the standard rate of 13%. In this way, the country's authorities are trying to stimulate the birth rate.