China's population decline, which the Chinese government officially confirmed in January, has led many observers to wonder if the country's current demographic trends threaten its stability.
According to the National Bureau of Statistics, China's population shrank last year for the first time in 60 years, nine years earlier than government projections had anticipated. The fertility rate (births per woman) fell to 1.0-1.1, well below the official forecast of 1.8. Most notably, the number of births dropped sharply to 9.56 million, the fewest since 1790, despite China's shift to a two-child policy in 2016.
