: China’s total fertility rate has fallen below the warning line and the population growth has entered a critical turning point, Chinese Minister of Civil Affairs Li Jiheng has said amid demographers warning that the country’s population will soon start to decline.
Facing a demographic crisis with a rapidly ageing population after implementing the decades-old one child policy, China permitted to have a second child since 2016.
Now the demographers call on the government to immediately lift restrictions on having babies and be more tolerant toward babies born out of wedlock, and do more to lower the costs of raising and educating children.
Li in an article said that under the influence of various factors, Chinese people are less willing to have children, the total fertility rate has fallen below the warning line, and the population development has entered a critical transition period, state-run Global Times reported on Thursday. On November 1, China started the world’s biggest exercise of population count to document demographic changes in the country.
About seven million workers began a door to door survey for the seventh census in the country to account for China’s population stated to be 1.37 billion in the last exercise conducted ten years ago.
The figures were expected to reveal more data related to the population which is key for China’s strategic development as the second-largest economy after the US and demographic crisis faced by it.