Development Policy Studies News Today

China’s overall population fell by 2.08 million in 2023, while births declined by 5.6 per cent to 9.02 million.

China’s overall population fell by 2.08 million last year to 1.4097 billion, down from 1.4118 billion in 2022, while births declined by 5.6 per cent to 9.02 million in 2023, data released on Wednesday showed.

Chinas population growth has been slowing since 2016 as the high cost of raising children, a greater pursuit of individualism and a diversified lifestyle dampen enthusiasm to start a family.

Tilting social welfare policies in favor of young people to encourage new births in the face of a low birth rate has been a common view in Chinese society. However, the idea of offering a house as a gift to young parents upon the birth of a child, proposed by a Chinese professor, hasnt received as much support. The suggestion has ignited a firestorm of online discussions and debates.

Several Chinese inland cities will organize group sea burials in April and May with the service fees covered by local civil affairs authorities to promote green burial practices, which take less farmland and resources and are friendly to the environment. Hohhot in North China’s Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region will hold a collective burial ceremony from May 9 to May 10 at the sea area near the coastal city of Qingdao, East China’s Shandong Province, according to a government notice.

The Chinese government has unveiled a controversial new measure encouraging adult children to live with or near their parents in its latest attempt to deal with an ageing society. Under the measure, authorities would roll out preferential policies for participants covering housing and the cost of utilities to encourage more families to move in with ageing parents or stay nearby...

Chinas aging crisis: new plan to encourage children to live with their parents met with resistance

July 14, 2021 Children play next to adults at a park in Beijing, China, on June 1, 2021. Reuters For Wang Huaiying, the elders in her home village cared a lot about having a male heir. Families she grew up around would often have three or four children in the hope of getting a boy, even during the days of China’s one-child policy. Born and raised in the countryside of Linyi, in eastern China’s Shandong province, the 35-year-old just had her third child , a boy. The boy will have two older ...

Demographers suggest further reform of the family planning policy Apr 29, 2021, 14:20 (Global Times) Chinese population experts predicted that Chinas annual births may fall below 10 million during the 14th Five-Year Plan period (2021-2025) and suggested that China should loosen its family planning policy as soon as possible, although the central government has not yet released the specific data from the seventh census.  China kicked off its seventh national population census in November 2020 a...

Aging in a new era Filming, editing, and publishing videos are inalienable parts of 65-year-old Lin Weis daily life. The retiree has become an online celebrity now, with a Tiktok account having a total of six million likes. Lin Wei is embracing retirement with modeling, performing, and now video production. "I cherish my retirement time," she said, "and I am making the best use of my monthly pension to improve my life." Lin Wei (the seond from the left) and her friends model at Wangfujing Str...