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China says population fell for third year in a row in 2024

17 January 2025
51012
2025-01-17 15:03

China said Friday its population fell for the third year running in 2024, extending a downward streak after more than six decades of growth as the country faces a rapidly ageing population and persistently low birth rates.

And by the end of the year, the population stood at 1.408 billion, Beijing's National Bureau of Statistics said -- down from 1.410 billion in 2023. China ended its strict "one-child policy", imposed in the 1980s over overpopulation fears, in 2016 and started letting couples have three children in 2021.

In September, officials said they would gradually raise the statutory retirement age, which was set at 60 and among the lowest in the world. It had not been raised for decades. The rules took effect from January 1.

 

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