BEIJING: China’s birth rate fell last year to its lowest level on record, official data showed Monday, as its population shrank for a fourth year running despite authorities’ efforts to curb the decline.
There were just 7.92 million births recorded last year, Chinese officials said Monday, a rate of 5.63 births per thousand people.
It marks the lowest birth rate since records by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) began in 1949 — the year Communist leader Mao Zedong declared the founding of the People’s Republic of China.
Beijing has scrambled to boost marriage and fertility rates, offering childcare subsidies and taxing condoms as it grapples with a rapidly aging population.
China’s birth rate had declined consistently over the last decade, despite the end of the restrictive “one-child policy,” until a slight uptick in 2024 when 6.77 births were recorded per thousand.
The previous low was in 2023, when China recorded 9.02 million births — a rate of 6.39 per 1,000 people.
Marriage rates are also at record low levels, with many young couples put off having babies by high child-rearing costs and career concerns.
Meanwhile China recorded 11.31 millions deaths in 2025, a mortality rate of 8.04 per thousand — leading to a population decline of 2.41 per thousand, NBS data showed.
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China’s birth rate falls to lowest on record: official data
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China’s birth rate falls to lowest on record: official data
- There were just 7.92 million births recorded last year, a rate of 5.63 births per thousand people
Kremlin says Ukraine talks to take place ‘next week’
- Two previous rounds of US-brokered talks have failed to lead to a breakthrough
- Moscow and Kyiv remain far apart on the key issue of territory
MOSCOW: Russia said on Friday that a new round of talks with US and Ukrainian officials seeking to broker an end to the four-year war would take place next week.
Two previous rounds of US-brokered talks in Abu Dhabi have failed to lead to a breakthrough, with Moscow and Kyiv remaining far apart on the key issue of territory.
“There is an agreement that it will indeed take place next week. We will inform you about the venue and dates,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters when asked about whether a new meeting had been planned.
US President Donald Trump is pushing to end the conflict, unleashed when Russia launched its full-scale military offensive in February 2022.
Moscow has stuck to its demands for sweeping territorial and political concessions from Ukraine — rejected by Kyiv as tantamount to capitulation.
Russia is pushing for Ukraine to pull out of the eastern Donetsk region — around one-fifth of which Kyiv’s forces still control.
Ukraine has rejected a unilateral pull-back and wants robust Western security guarantees to deter Russia from re-launching its offensive following any ceasefire.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said earlier this week that he had accepted a US proposal to hold a round of talks in Miami next week.
Hundreds of thousands of soldiers and tens of thousands of civilians have been killed in the four-year conflict, Europe’s deadliest since World War II.
Russia occupies around one-fifth of Ukrainian land — including the Crimean peninsula it seized in 2014 and areas that Moscow-backed separatists had taken prior to 2022.
Two previous rounds of US-brokered talks in Abu Dhabi have failed to lead to a breakthrough, with Moscow and Kyiv remaining far apart on the key issue of territory.
“There is an agreement that it will indeed take place next week. We will inform you about the venue and dates,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters when asked about whether a new meeting had been planned.
US President Donald Trump is pushing to end the conflict, unleashed when Russia launched its full-scale military offensive in February 2022.
Moscow has stuck to its demands for sweeping territorial and political concessions from Ukraine — rejected by Kyiv as tantamount to capitulation.
Russia is pushing for Ukraine to pull out of the eastern Donetsk region — around one-fifth of which Kyiv’s forces still control.
Ukraine has rejected a unilateral pull-back and wants robust Western security guarantees to deter Russia from re-launching its offensive following any ceasefire.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said earlier this week that he had accepted a US proposal to hold a round of talks in Miami next week.
Hundreds of thousands of soldiers and tens of thousands of civilians have been killed in the four-year conflict, Europe’s deadliest since World War II.
Russia occupies around one-fifth of Ukrainian land — including the Crimean peninsula it seized in 2014 and areas that Moscow-backed separatists had taken prior to 2022.
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