{"id":13567,"date":"2024-01-19T06:30:43","date_gmt":"2024-01-19T06:30:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/focus.cbbc.org\/?p=13567"},"modified":"2025-04-23T09:03:25","modified_gmt":"2025-04-23T09:03:25","slug":"what-does-chinas-declining-population-mean-for-business","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/focus.cbbc.org\/what-does-chinas-declining-population-mean-for-business\/","title":{"rendered":"What does China\u2019s declining population mean for business?"},"content":{"rendered":"

China\u2019s latest demographic data was released by the National Bureau of Statistics on 17 January, showing that the country\u2019s population fell for a second consecutive year. The latest data reinforces fears about the challenges a declining population will pose for the world\u2019s second-largest economy, which has long relied on a plentiful and ambitious workforce to fuel its industrial and economic growth.<\/p>\n

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The population decline of 0.15% \u2013 or 2.08 million people \u2013 to 1.409 billion in 2023 was well over the 850,000-person drop seen in 2022, which was China\u2019s first decline in population since 1961. Total new births fell 5.7% to 9.02 million in 2023, while deaths rose 6.6% to 11.1 million.<\/p>\n

The country\u2019s crude birth rate of 6.39 per 1,000 people puts it on a par with South Korea and Japan, which have been among the countries with the lowest birth rates for the past few decades (by comparison, the crude birth rates in the UK and US are around 10-11 per 1,000).<\/p>\n