According to China’s State Statistics Office, the country’s population fell from 1 billion 408 million 280,000 in 2024 to 1 billion 404 million 890,000 in 2025.
Thus, the country’s population in 2025 decreased by 3.39 million people, continuing the downward trend observed over the past three years.
For the first time since the famine of the early 1960s, China’s population began to decline in 2022, marking the starting point of a long-term demographic decline.
According to analysts, China has entered a phase of long-term demographic change characterized by an aging population and a gradual decline in the share of people of working age, Turkey’s Anadolu Agency said.
With population growth rates declining since 2016, the country’s population is expected to decline more rapidly in the coming years.
The Chinese authorities had previously abandoned the “one-child” policy in place since the 1980s, first allowing two children in 2016 and then three in 2021. However, despite the measures to stimulate the birth rate, slowing economic growth, rising living costs and the cost of raising children are forcing younger generations to postpone the decision to start a family.
It is expected that the shrinking population and its aging will eventually lead to a decline in China’s labor potential, which will have a noticeable impact on the country’s economy.
