China’s Population Growth Slows To Lowest Rate In Decades.

A recently concluded census has revealed that Chinas’s population is growing too slowly for its needs.

Ning Jizhe, head of the national bureau of statistics said shrinking populations are problematic due to inverted age structure.

With more old people than young there won’t be enough workers in the future to support the elderly, and there may be an increased demand for health and social care.There had been expectations that china might scrap the family planning policy altogether.

Mr Ning also said that 12 million babies were born last year – a significant decrease from the 18 million newborns in 2016, it was “still a considerable number”.

He blamed China’s low fertility rate on the countries social and economic development saying that as countries become more developed, birth rates tend to fall due to education or other priorities such as careers.

In 2016, the Chinese government ended a controversial one-child policy and allowed couples to have two children but despite a two-year increase immediately afterwards. the reform proved unable to reverse the country’s falling birth rate.

While China still has an abundant labour force,economist Ms Yue warned that going forward, continued drops in the labour force “will place a cap on China’s potential economic growth.”