China's one-child policy (now discontinued) has left the country with a population that is ageing fast, and it could soon lose its demographic dividend.


The number of babies born in 2021 was 10.62 million, a decrease of 11.5% compared to 2020. This translates to 7.52 births for every 1,000 people in 2021, a drop from 8.52 in 2020.


Last year, China had 267.36 million people aged over 60, representing 18.9% of the population, up from 264.02 million in 2020. There were 200.56 million aged over 65 in 2021, up from 190.64 million in 2020.


The desire to have a male child has resulted in more abortions and has skewed the country’s overall sex ratio has toward males. The male to female ratio in 2020 stood at 105.07, with 723.34 million males and 688.44 million females (2020 census).


China's fertility rate stood at 1.3 children per woman in 2020 (in developed countries a fertility rate of 2.1 is a pre-requisite for a stable population, but it can be more in developing countries), which can also be attributed to the one-child policy as women are still unwilling to bear more children.

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