BEIJING: China’s population has grown at its slowest pace in decades, reaching 1.41 billion, census results showed on Tuesday, highlighting fears of a looming crisis over an ageing society. After decades of a controversial “one-child” policy, Beijing in 2016 allowed families to have two children as fears grew about China’s shrinking workforce. This is down from 14.65 million births the year before — when Beijing reported the slowest birthrate since Communist China was founded in 1949. The average size of a family is now 2.62 people, census data showed, down from 3.10 people 10 years ago. China conducts a census every decade to determine population growth, movement patterns and other trends, and the sensitive data plays a major role in government policy planning.

Source: Manila Times May 11, 2021 05:03 UTC