China’s birth rate drops to record low

China recorded its lowest birth rate on record in 2025, the statistics office in Beijing reported on Monday.

The rate fell to 5.63 births per 1,000 people, the lowest number of births since the founding of the People’s Republic in 1949, the office said.

Some 7.92 million babies were born in 2025, down from 9.54 million the year before.

China’s population fell for the fourth consecutive year, dropping by 3.39 million to 1.405 billion in 2025, the office said.

China began easing its decades-long one-child policy in the mid-2010s, introducing a two-child limit in 2016 and allowing couples to have up to three children from 2021, as the country grapples with a rapidly ageing population and a population decline.

By 2050, it is estimated that 520 million people in China will be 60 years of age or older, placing strain on the country’s pension system.

The government began raising the retirement age last year. The pension age for men will gradually rise over the next 15 years from 60 to 63. For women, for whom there were previously two retirement ages depending on their occupation, the increase will be either from 50 to 55 or from 55 to 58.

Authorities have also struggled to persuade people to have more children, despite policy measures including tax incentives, extended parental leave and local subsidies.

Analysts cite high living costs, expensive housing, intense education pressures and insecure incomes as key factors behind the low birth rate.