China’s Population Shrinks for the First Time in Six Decades

What’s new: China’s population fell for the first time in 61 years in 2022 as its birthrate dropped to a record low, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) announced Tuesday.

The Chinese mainland had 1.412 billion people at the end of 2022, 850,000 fewer than a year earlier, according to an NBS statement. The count excludes residents of Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan living on the mainland, as well as foreign nationals.