{"id":39196,"date":"2024-01-20T04:37:10","date_gmt":"2024-01-19T23:07:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/?p=39196"},"modified":"2025-04-24T02:40:28","modified_gmt":"2025-04-23T21:10:28","slug":"china-population","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/china-population\/","title":{"rendered":"Decline in China\u2019s Population and its Impacts"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2>What\u2019s in Today\u2019s Article?<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>Why in News?<\/li>\n<li>Recent Population Trends in China<\/li>\n<li>Factors Responsible for the China\u2019s Falling Population<\/li>\n<li>How Could a Falling Population Impact China?<\/li>\n<li>Way Ahead for China<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Why in News?<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>The year 2023 saw 11.1 million deaths and 9 million births in China, marking the second year in which the country\u2019s total population has reduced to a recently released total figure of 1.4 billion.<\/li>\n<li>In the same year, India overtook China as the most populous country in the world.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Recent Population Trends in China<\/h2>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com\/media\/editor_images\/2024\/1\/20\/12\/38\/48\/65ab7180eed8c00590feeeec_OI.PNG\" alt=\"\" \/><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Since 2016, the Total Fertility Rate or TFR (the number of children a woman, on average, is expected to bear in her lifetime) has been falling in China.\n<ul>\n<li>According to the 2020 Census, China\u2019s TFR was 1.3 births per woman &#8211; marginally up from the 1.2 in the 2010 and 2000 censuses, but way below the replacement rate of 2.1.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>The replacement rate is the number of children a woman is to have to replace the present generation in the future.\n<ul>\n<li>A couple having two children would mean maintaining the same level of population in the future as well.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Factors Responsible for the China\u2019s Falling Population<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>China\u2019s one-child policy:\n<ul>\n<li>Introduced in 1980, the One-child policy restricted couples to have only one child or face harsh penalties.<\/li>\n<li>The Communist Party of China, in power since 1949, did so in a bid to accelerate economic growth.<\/li>\n<li>In 2016, the One-child policy officially ended and couples were allowed to have up to 2 children, which was increased to 3 children in 2021. However, this has not helped achieve the goals of population growth.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>Other factors:\n<ul>\n<li>Women\u2019s education and employment allow them the agency to make choices about their reproductive health.<\/li>\n<li>High pressures of modern society, with increasing competition for jobs, is also a factor. People are marrying later and sometimes choosing not to have children or to have only one child.<\/li>\n<li>It is a vicious cycle &#8211; an economic slowdown should mean young couples delay having children and the resulting decline in fertility rates eventually pushes the economy\u2019s productivity rates lower.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>How Could a Falling Population Impact China?<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>The working-age population between 15 to 59 years, which is seen as being productive in an economy, has now fallen to 61% of the total population.<\/li>\n<li>The proportion of those aged 60 and older has increased. Life expectancy has also increased for both men and women over time as a result of advanced healthcare systems.<\/li>\n<li>In the short run, the trend will result in the need for greater investments in elderly care, including palliative care, and hiring more medical professionals and nursing staff.<\/li>\n<li>In the longer run, it could lead to greater pressure on the young population to support the \u2018dependants\u2019 (those under the age of 15 and over the age of 59).<\/li>\n<li>It also comes at a time when China\u2019s overall economic growth is lower than expected and yet to go back to the highs it reached in the 2000s.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Way Ahead for China<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>It is necessary to strengthen guidance for young people\u2019s views on marriage, parenthood and the family.<\/li>\n<li>To promote policies that support parenthood and actively cope with the ageing of the population.<\/li>\n<li>Telling good stories about family customs, guide women to play a unique role in promoting the traditional virtues of the Chinese nation and establishing good family customs, and create a new culture of family civilization.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<hr \/>\n<h3>Q1) How is the total fertility rate (TFR) defined?<\/h3>\n<p>The total fertility rate in a specific year is defined as the total number of children that would be born to each woman if she were to live to the end of her child-bearing years and give birth to children in alignment with the prevailing age-specific fertility rates.<\/p>\n<h3>Q2) What are the pros and cons of the rising population in India?<\/h3>\n<p>India\u2019s youth bulge is a double-edged sword. To gain from it, India will need to create enough jobs for the millions who enter its workforce every year &#8211; a challenge at which it is currently failing.\u00a0<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><strong>Source:<\/strong> <a href=\"https:\/\/indianexpress.com\/article\/explained\/explained-global\/china-population-fall-explained-reasons-significance-9115917\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\"><u>China\u2019s population fell for the second year in a row in 2023. But why?<\/u><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The year 2023 mark the 2nd year in which the China\u2019s total population has reduced to a recently released total figure of 1.4 billion<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":39197,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-39196","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-upsc-mains-current-affairs","8":"no-featured-image-padding"},"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39196","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39196"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39196\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/39197"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39196"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=39196"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39196"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}