Natural population growth rate lagging, NBS says

Amid efforts to boost the nation's birth rate, the China Statistical Yearbook 2024 recently released by the National Bureau of Statistics said only eight provincial-level regions recorded a positive natural population growth rate last year.

According to the yearbook, the top three regions in terms of natural population growth rates last year were the Xizang autonomous region, the Ningxia Hui autonomous region and Guizhou province, while those in Fujian, Jiangxi and Zhejiang provinces have shifted from positive to negative.

China's total population dropped for the second consecutive year in 2023, decreasing by roughly 2.08 million to 1.41 billion. The total number of newborns in the country for the year was 9.02 million, with a birth rate of 6.39 per thousand, it said.