China’s new births fall 15pc
The number of new births in China plummeted 15% in 2020 from a year earlier, according to the Ministry of Public Security, with the onset of the novel coronavirus disrupting the economy and weighing on decisions to have a family. China saw 10.035 million new births last year, the ministry said on Monday, compared with 11.79 million births in 2019. In recent years, many couples are reluctant to have children due to the rising cost of health care, education and housing. The abandoning of the decades-long one-child policy in 2016 has not provided much impetus to the country's birth rate. The economic uncertainties brought on by Covid-19 last year further weighed on decisions to have children, extending a long-term birth decline in the world's most populous but fast-ageing nation.
Comments