Jakarta –
China’s fertility rate is estimated to have decreased to a record low of 1.09 in 2022. This situation is predicted to shake the government when they are intensively boosting the number of new births which continues to decline.
According to a National Business Daily report, figures from the China Population and Development Research Center have placed China as the country with the lowest fertility rate among countries with a population of more than 100 million people.
The data puts China alongside countries such as South Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Singapore, which are also hit by low fertility rates.
In response to the unprecedented population decline and rapidly aging demographic, Beijing has embarked on various measures to increase the birth rate, including financial incentives and increased child care facilities.
President Xi Jinping even chaired a meeting in May to study the topic.
China has articulated a commitment to improving the quality of its population through investments in education, science and technology. The aim is to maintain a ‘moderate fertility’ level to sustain future economic growth.
Many factors have contributed to this downward trend, including high childcare costs which discourage women from expanding their families and traditional gender roles which perpetuate the burden of childcare on women.
Authorities have in recent months stepped up the rhetoric about sharing childcare duties but paternity leave is still limited in most provinces.
In a separate release, the Hong Kong Family Planning Association revealed that the percentage of childless women in the administrative area has doubled over the past five years, reaching 43.2 percent last year.
The proportion of couples with one or two children has also fallen, with the average number of children per woman dropping from 1.3 in 2017 to 0.9 the previous year, according to an association survey.
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2023-08-16 00:31:33
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