Hong Kong: Many Chinese citizens are not sure about having babies after three years of the pandemic. The stress of falling ill and uncertainty caused by restrictions are forcing many to think about not having children while living in China.
According to the official 2022 population data, the pandemic's repercussions are set to trigger a historic demographic in the country. China is already struggling with a population demographic.
Most people are worried over the lack of access to medical services mothers and babies had to endure in the past years, reported Reuters. China's hospitals were overwhelmed by Covid infections which forced the staff and system to put everyone else on the back burner.
According to experts, China's population in 2022 is hinting at its first big drop since the Great Famine of 1961. New births are set to fall to record lows. In 2021, new births were at 10.6 million which was a drop of 11.5% from 2020. In 2022, the decline is expected to be further than that.
Wang Feng, a professor of Sociology at the University of California, told Reuters that China has entered a long and irreversible process of population decline with this historical turn. "In less than 80 years China's population size could be reduced by 45%. It will be a China unrecognisable by the world then."
The UN has predicted China's population to start declining in 2023 and shrink by 109 million by 2050. This is triple the decline of the 2019 forecast.
The trend of population decline is not limited to China. Nine of the 10 most populous nations are seeing a decline in fertility. China has recorded the lowest of 1.18 in 2022. The standard for a stable population is 2.1.
According to demographer Yi Fuxian, the proportion of people aged 65 and above will reach 37% in 2050. He said China is getting old before it gets rich because rapid ageing is slowing the economy, reducing revenues, and increasing government debt. The low birth rates will affect the labour force as well.
In October 2022, President Xi Jinping said the government will introduce policies to boost the birth rate.
India is set to overtake China as the world's most populous country. In 2022, Google Trends showed a 15% increase in searching for baby bottles and the searches for cribs rose five-fold.