china mother child
© VCG/VCG via Getty ImagesA woman holding a baby at Shijiazhuang Railway Station in Shijiazhuang, in the Hebei Province of China, on Jan. 7.
China reported Tuesday its first population decline since 1961, as the world's most populous country faces a demographic crisis.

By the numbers: There were 1.41175 billion people living in China at the end of 2022 — a drop of about 850,000 compared to the previous year's end, according to data from Beijing's National Bureau of Statistics Tuesday.
  • A total of 9.56 million people were born in the country in 2022 and 10.41 million people died, per the NBS.
Of note: The United Nations projects that India will overtake China as the world's most populous nation at some point this year.

The big picture: The data comes as Beijing grapples with a surge in coronavirus deaths after shifting from its zero-COVID policy that saw restrictions including lockdowns weaken its economy and disrupt global supply chains.


Comment: Covid deaths have next to nothing to do with China's falling birth rate, the lockdowns and propaganda onslaught by the world's mainstream media might have, as it did in every other developed nation; Western nations saw birth rates plummet.

  • Data from the NBS Tuesday showed China's economy grew 3% last year — well short of the ruling Chinese Communist Party's 5.5% target at the start of 2022.
Background: Beijing has in recent years moved to respond to its slowing population rate by relaxing family planning restrictions related to its strict one-child policy that came into effect in 1980 and was abolished in late 2015.

Thought bubble, via Axios' Bethany Allen-Ebrahimian: This marks a clear inflection point that will slowly but dramatically change Chinese society and politics over the next few decades.