Population drop spurs call for focus on quality

China's population fell by about 2 million last year, prompting experts to say that, with continued but mild declines likely in the foreseeable future, more attention should be paid to improving the quality of human resources and implementing fertility support measures.

The number of babies born last year went down by about 540,000 year-on-year to 9.02 million, according to data released on Wednesday by the National Bureau of Statistics. With 11.1 million deaths recorded last year, the total population dropped by 2.08 million to around 1.41 billion.

Meanwhile, the proportion of the working-age population — those ages 16 to 59 years old — decreased slightly year-on-year to 61.3 percent in 2023, while the proportion of people age 60 and older rose by 1.3 percentage points to 21.1 percent.