Death rates in China’s capital Beijing will exceed birth rates in 2022, leading to a negative natural population growth for the first time since 2003, according to official data released today.

The death rate in the city of 21.84 million, one of the country’s most densely populated urban centers, rose to 5.72 deaths per 1,000 inhabitants, while the birth rate fell to 5.67 births per 1,000 inhabitants, according to official figures. authorities.

Beijing’s population decline follows a national trend: China’s population declined last year for the first time in six decades due to rising living costs, especially in large and expanding cities like Beijing, weak economic growth and changing attitudes towards family.

In early December, a nationwide lifting of strict Covid-19 measures triggered a wave of infections and an unknown number of deaths.

It was the first decline in Beijing’s natural population since 2003, with the natural population increase last year at minus 0.05 per 1,000 inhabitants.

Birth rate

The figures are based on a random poll that began Nov. 1, according to a statement by Beijing authorities, which did not specify how long it lasted.

China’s birth rate last year was 6.77 births per 1,000 population, the lowest ever recorded, while the death rate, the highest since 1974, was 7.37 deaths per 1,000 population.

Source: APE-MPE, Reuters.