China’s population falls for a fourth straight year

(Corrected in paragraph 1 to show that this is a decrease of 3.39 million, not 339 million)

BEIJING, Jan 19 (Reuters) – China’s population fell for the fourth consecutive year in 2025, falling by 3.39 million to 1.405 billion, official data showed on Monday. This is a faster decline than in 2024.

The total number of births in China fell from 9.54 million in 2024 to 7.92 million in 2025, the lowest in decades. According to figures from China’s National Bureau of Statistics, the number of deaths increased from 10.93 million to 11.31 million in 2024.

China’s population has been shrinking and aging rapidly since 2022, complicating Beijing’s plan to boost domestic consumption and rein in debt; Hundreds of millions of people are preparing to leave the workforce at a time when retirement budgets are already stretched.

Marriages in China will fall by a fifth in 2024, the biggest decline in history; The number of couples registered for marriage was more than 6.1 million, compared to 7.68 million in 2023.

Marriages are generally the leading indicator of birth rates in China.

But demographers said the country could see a slight “temporary” increase in births next year after China eased the process in May 2025 by allowing couples to marry anywhere in the country rather than where they reside.

(Writing by Farah Master in Hong Kong; Editing by Christopher Cushing and Kate Mayberry)