BANGKOK \u2013 How do you convince a population to have more babies after generations of a policy that limited families to just one?<\/p>\n
A decade after ending China’s longtime, one-child policy, authorities are pushing a whole range of ideas and policies to try and encourage more births, ranging from cash subsidies to taxing condoms. <\/p>\n
The efforts haven’t paid off yet. At least, that is what population figures released Monday show for what is now the world’s second-most populous nation.<\/p>\n
China’s population of 1.4 billion continued to shrink, marking the fourth straight year of decrease, new government statistics show. The total population in 2025 stood at 1.404 billion, which was 3 million less than the previous year<\/a>.<\/p>\n The statistics illustrate the stark demographic pressures the country faces. The number of new babies born was just 7.92 million in 2025, a decline of 1.62 million, or 17%. The latest birth numbers show the slight tick upwards in 2024 was not a lasting trend. Births declined<\/a> for seven years in a row through 2023.<\/p>\n Most families cite the costs and pressure of raising a child<\/a> in a highly competitive society as significant hurdles that now loom larger in the face of an economic downturn that has impacted households struggling to meet their living costs<\/a>.<\/p>\n Like many other countries in Asia, China has faced a declining fertility rate, or the average number of babies a woman is expected to have in her lifetime. While the government does not regularly publish a fertility rate, last saying it was 1.3 in 2020, experts have estimated it is now around 1. Both figures are far below the 2.1 rate that would maintain the size of China’s population.<\/p>\n Measured another way, the birth rate in 2025 is the lowest on record. The rate of 5.63% is the number of births per 1,000 people.<\/p>\n