--- title: "China’s Population Is About to Start Declining, and Its Leaders Are Worried" description: "China's population is set to peak in four years, and then decline. Learn why national authorities are worried about this demographic change." date: "2021-04-19" modified: "2021-04-28" authors: - name: "Victor Tangermann" job_title: "Senior Editor" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/victor" url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/chinas-population-is-about-to-start-declining-and-its-leaders-are-worried" categories: - "Future Society" tags: - "china" - "demographics" - "the digest" --- # China’s Population Is About to Start Declining, and Its Leaders Are Worried ![In just four years, China's population is set to peak, worrying national authorities, as the South China Morning Post reports.]() *\Image: Image via Wikimedia Commons\* ## The Decline In just four years, [the *South China Morning Post* reports](), China's population is set to peak — a demographic shift that could have far-reaching economic consequences. "When the total population enters negative growth \[after 2025\], there will be a shortage of demand," monetary policy committee of the People’s Bank of China (PBOC) Cai Fang said last Friday, according to *SCMP*. "We need to pay attention to the impact of demographics on future consumption," he said. While China eased its one-child policy in 2013, allowing parents to have two children instead of just one, the country's birth rate has continued to stagnate. In other words, China's efforts to fight overpopulation appear to have worked way too well. ## Aging Population According to Cai, the number of people working in China had been on a steady decline for a decade now as a result. Recently [published research]() also showed that China's falling birth rate could have immediate consequences, including increased financial stress of the healthy looking after an increasingly elderly percentage of the population. The proportion of elderly people in China has risen to almost 12.3 percent in 2019, from just seven percent in 2000. "China must recognize that the demographic situation has changed," PBOC researchers wrote in the paper. The country must "realize education and technological advancement will not be able to make up for the decline in population." "The cost of childbearing, parenting and education are the biggest constraints on young couples," Cai said. "For the elderly, we need to increase their labor participation and social security benefits so that they can contribute to and share in the economic growth, while also maintaining consumer demand." As a result, officials at the PBOC [are calling]() upon Beijing to abandon China's two-child policy and encourage women to have more children. **READ MORE:** [China facing economic crisis as population peak nears, PBOC adviser says]() \[*South China Morning Sea*\] **More on China's population:** [*China Is Facing A “Precipitous” Population Decline*]() ## Author I've been at Futurism since 2017, where my role has evolved to encompass design, writing, and increasingly editing. I've always been fascinated by space exploration and advanced transportation, which I've leaned into by interviewing luminaries in those fields while closely following the dimensions of policy and regulation that allow next-generation projects to succeed -- or, sometimes, to fail. I'm also keenly interested in the effects of generative AI on society, policies, and democratic institutions, as well as clean energy, physics and biology, and the vagaries of tech leadership. My work for Futurism has been cited by publications including Ars Technica, Gizmodo, PC Magazine, Jalopnik, Fox News, and the New York Post. I spent my childhood living in locations including Manila, the Philippines, and Geneva, Switzerland, attended McGill University, and now live in Toronto, Canada. Before Futurism I worked at AskMen and a small photography studio. In my free time, I'm an avid gardener, foodie, and craft beer lover, as well as a maker of artisanal hot pepper sauces. I have a magnificent dog named Freida. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()