The National Bureau of Statistics on Tuesday reported that the country witnessed a decline of about 850,000 fewer people at the end of 2022 as against 2022.
The outcome of the statistics indicated the Chinese country’s first population decline in decades after long maintenance of its spots as the world’s most populous country.
The current statistics of the country’s population numbered a total of 1.41 billion population, with the birth rate declining while the death rate increases.
Out of the total population of the Chinese, men took the largest chunks of the number with their population totaling 722.06 million, while the women’s total population is at 689.69 million.
The decline is attributed to the result of the strict one-child policy which officially ended in 2016 and a traditional preference for male offspring to carry on the family name.
China last witnessed such a great decline in population growth during the Great Leap Forward in the 1950s, under the leadership of then Mao Zedong’s policy of collective farming and industrialization where tens of millions of people died as a result of famine.
It’s on record that, India whose population is estimated at more than 1.4 billion and continues to increase is expected to take over from China as the world’s most populous nation soon.