World
China’s Births May Drop Again This Year From 2020’s Low
- 12 million children born in China last year, least since 1961
- National Health Commission official briefs on 2021’s outlook
Photographer: Getty Images
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The number of babies born in China may continue to decline this year, a government official said, possibly bringing closer the day when the population starts to shrink and increasing the demographic challenges for the world’s most populous state.
“Fertility levels and new births are expected to keep falling this year, based on our monitoring of birth and population in the first half of 2021,” Yu Xuejun, deputy head of the National Health Commission, said at a briefing in Beijing. China will roll out more supporting measures to optimize birth policy, Yu said.