China's population falls for a fourth straight year

FILE PHOTO: A woman holds a child near office buildings in Shenzhen, Guangdong province, China Sept 15, 2025. REUTERS/Tingshu Wang/File Photo

China's population fell for a fourth consecutive year in 2025, dropping by 339 million to 1.405 billion, a faster decline than 2024, official data showed on Monday.

The total number of births in China dropped to 7.92 million in 2025, its lowest in decades, from 9.54 million in 2024. The number of deaths rose to 11.31 million from 10.93 million in 2024, figures from China's National Bureau of Statistics showed.

China's population has been shrinking since 2022 and is ageing rapidly, and has complicated Beijing's plan to boost domestic consumption and rein in debt, with hundreds of millions of people set to leave the workforce at a time when pension budgets are already stretched.

Marriages in China plunged by a fifth in 2024, the biggest drop on record, with more than 6.1 million couples registering for marriage, down from 7.68 million in 2023.

Marriages are typically a leading indicator for birth rates in China.

In the coming year, however, the country may see a slight temporary increase in births, demographers said, after China in May 2025 started allowing couples to get married anywhere in the country - instead of their place of residence - making the process easier.