China’s population fell for a fourth consecutive year in 2025, dropping by 3.39 million to 1.405 billion, a faster decline than 2024, official data showed on Jan 19. The total number of births in China dropped to 7.92 million in 2025, its lowest in decades, from 9.54 million in 2024. The number of deaths rose to 11.31 million from 10.93 million in 2024, figures from China’s National Bureau of Statistics showed. China’s population has been shrinking since 2022 and is ageing rapidly, and has complicated Beijing’s plan to boost domestic consumption and rein in debt, with hundreds of millions of people set to leave the ... (full story)