The latest census figures for the world’s most populous country will show a decline to less than 1.4 billion people, although it is unclear by how much, according to the Financial Times.
According to analysts, population decline could have major consequences for China’s economy and how other countries, including the United States, view the country.
`US economists and officials believe that China will become the world’s number one economy, and will compete with the US,` said Fuxian Yi, senior scientist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, USA.
People gathered on Tiananmen Square, Beijing, China to celebrate the New Year in January 2020.
Analysts say there are clear signs of a looming demographic crisis in China, and officials are not always honest about the population figures they release.
Last month, a top Chinese government researcher said that Beijing would gradually raise the retirement age for workers, a sign that the country’s workforce is not large enough to allow workers to retire at home.
In 2015, the Chinese Communist Party announced an end to the one-child policy, in place since the late 1970s that forced most families to have only one child or else they would be fined, and allowed families to have two.
`Demographic trends in China are clearer than before, but this news confirms concerns that China’s population continues to decline despite loosening population policies,` said Mary Gallagher, director of the International Institute of
Many Chinese women also fear discrimination at work, and fewer rights in marriage and divorce.
China is not the only country grappling with worrying demographic changes.
Hannah