China’s population shrinks for fourth consecutive year, intensifying fears about future

China’s population rate declined again last year, as the country grapples with how to revive birth rates 10 years after ending its decadeslong one-child policy. 

China’s birth rate in 2025 stood at 5.63 per 1,000 people, according to government data released Monday, marking the lowest on record since births began to be formally documented in 1949, when the Chinese Communist Party took power under Mao Zedong. The country’s fertility rate is now one of the lowest in the world, estimated to stand at around 1, far below the 2.1 replacement rate needed to maintain population size. 

The development comes despite Beijing’s growing attempts to target the birth decline crisis, including through a recently announced 13% tax on contraceptives, such as condoms and birth control pills. And the