Breakpoint: Money Cannot Fix China’s Population Decline
By John Stonestreet and Jared Hayden
Population rates struggle where marriage and family are not viewed as a key foundation to livelihood.Last year, the population of the nation of China dropped by at least two million people. That number is over double the nation’s population decline in 2022. For context, this is like the U.S. losing the entire population of the state of Nebraska or the city of Houston, Texas in a single year.
What continues to drive China’s drastic decline in population is a drop in births. In the last five years, the number of births there has dropped by almost half, according to China’s National Bureau of Statistics. In 2017, China reported 17 million births. In 2023, it reported only 9 million, a number that fails to replace the 11 million people who died.
In 2016, China revoked its infamous one-child policy. In recent years, local governments and corporations have made concentrated efforts to encourage and even incentivize citizens to have more kids. In Hangzhou, the local government offered $2,800 for those who had a third child in 2023. In Wenzhou, parents were offered over $400 for every child they have. Some companies are offering cash bonuses for the first five years of a child’s life. Yet, despite these efforts, China’s population continues to decline.
To be clear, though its situation may be the most dramatic, China is not the only country facing population decline. Countries across the developed world, from Europe to East Asia, have birth rates well below the replacement rate. And, like China, several of them are attempting to incentivize citizens to have more children.
What continues to drive China’s drastic decline in population is a drop in births. In the last five years, the number of births there has dropped by almost half, according to China’s National Bureau of Statistics. In 2017, China reported 17 million births. In 2023, it reported only 9 million, a number that fails to replace the 11 million people who died.
In 2016, China revoked its infamous one-child policy. In recent years, local governments and corporations have made concentrated efforts to encourage and even incentivize citizens to have more kids. In Hangzhou, the local government offered $2,800 for those who had a third child in 2023. In Wenzhou, parents were offered over $400 for every child they have. Some companies are offering cash bonuses for the first five years of a child’s life. Yet, despite these efforts, China’s population continues to decline.
To be clear, though its situation may be the most dramatic, China is not the only country facing population decline. Countries across the developed world, from Europe to East Asia, have birth rates well below the replacement rate. And, like China, several of them are attempting to incentivize citizens to have more children.
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