Demographics of China

China's ruling Communist Party is facing a national emergency. To fix it, the party wants more women to have more babies.

It has offered them sweeteners, like cheaper housing, tax benefits and cash. It has also invoked patriotism, calling on them to be "good wives and mothers."

China has announced its first population decline in decades as what has been the world's most populous nation ages and its birthrate plunges.

China's population has grown at its slowest pace in decades, reaching 1.41 billion, census results showed on May 11, highlighting fears of a looming crisis over an ageing society.

The growth of 5.4 percent was the slowest since the 1960s, due in part to falling birthrates and a sharp drop in the number of working-age people.

In the past decade, China has had the lowest population growth since the introduction of the one-child policy in the 1970s, whereby each couple was only allowed to have one child. This is evident from the 2020 census, of which the national statistics office announced the results on Tuesday.

China has launched a campaign to check severe distress in its economic and social stability that may also pose a threat to Chinese Communist Party rule caused by a sharp plunge in marriage rates due to the one-child policy.

The end of "one-child policy" could not stop China's declining birth rate, the BBC reported.

The birth rate has dropped to its lowest level since the inception of the People's Republic of China 70 years ago - despite the elimination of "one-child policy".

The birth rate was 10.48 per thousand in 2019 - the lowest since 1949, the National Bureau of Statistics said.

By the end of 2017, China's population grew by 7.37 million to 1.39 billion, the government said, quoted by TASS.

Married couples in China will from Jan. 1, be allowed to have two children, after concerns over an ageing population and shrinking workforce ushered in an end to the country's controversial one-child policy.  

The change, which was announced in October by the ruling Communist Party, takes effect from Jan. 1, Beijing's official Xinhua news agency reported over the weekend.