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China’s population has declined for the fourth consecutive year, despite sustained efforts by the government to encourage couples to have more children.
Official data released on Monday showed that the world’s second-most populous country recorded another population drop in 2025, with the total number falling to approximately 1.404 billion. This represents a decrease of about three million people compared with the previous year.
More than a decade after scrapping its decades-long one-child policy, Chinese authorities have introduced a wide range of measures aimed at boosting birth rates. These efforts have included cash incentives for parents, financial support for childcare, tax breaks for matchmakers and daycare centres, and even controversial proposals such as taxing contraceptives. However, these policies have so far failed to reverse the downward trend.
In a 2016 report published shortly after the policy was abolished, the Brookings Institution described China’s one-child policy as “one of the costliest lessons of misguided public policymaking,” a warning that continues to resonate as demographic challenges deepen.
Birth rates have now fallen to their lowest level since the founding of the People’s Republic of China in 1949. In 2025, just 5.63 births were recorded per 1,000 people, the weakest figure on record. Only 7.92 million babies were born during the year, marking a sharp decline of 1.62 million births, or 17 percent, compared with 2024.
The drop erased a brief and fragile increase recorded the previous year, confirming that China’s long-term decline in births remains firmly entrenched. Prior to that short-lived rise, the country experienced seven consecutive years of falling birth numbers through 2023.
Once the most populous nation in the world, China was overtaken by neighbouring India in 2023, a symbolic milestone highlighting its demographic shift.
Many families cite rising living costs, intense academic pressure, job insecurity, and the high expense of raising children in an increasingly competitive society as key reasons for delaying or avoiding parenthood altogether.
As one expert noted, deep-rooted structural challenges such as housing affordability, employment opportunities, and education expectations are far harder to fix. Until these issues are addressed, analysts warn that achieving a meaningful increase in birth rates will remain a major challenge for China.
