About a third of mainland China’s regions increased their population last year despite falling birth rates and an aging society, according to the latest official data from China’s provinces, Yicai reported June 20. .
China’s 11 provincial-level administrative regions alone increased their population by 1.6 million people. Zhejiang and Guangdong accounted for more than 60% of the growth, followed by the expanding regions of Hainan, Shanghai and Jiangsu.
In eastern China, growth is mainly due to a net influx of population from less developed regions. However, natural growth is also possible, as the Guizhou example demonstrates. In 2023, the birth rate of the Southwestern Province was 10.65 children per thousand inhabitants, resulting in a natural increase of 2.88 per thousand inhabitants.
Guangdong, China’s largest economic region, was the only province to give birth to more than a million newborns for the fourth consecutive year last year. The birth rate reached 8.12 per thousand people, ranking among the highest among the provinces, reflecting the strength of the manufacturing center to attract immigrants and families.
Central China’s Henan Province and eastern Shandong Province recorded 695,000 and 610,000 newborns respectively last year, ranking second and third in the country. Sichuan came in fourth place with an increase of 529,000 people.
Guangdong has the highest resident population in the country because the region attracts many people who are of the right age to marry and have children, which is the main reason why the province’s birth rate tops that of the country, Peng said. Peng, executive president of the local branches of the Chinese Society for Economic Reform.
Furthermore, although the birth rate in Guangdong as a whole is declining, as in other regions of the country, the eastern and western regions of the southern province are bucking the trend, as residents’ desire to have children remains relatively high. , influenced by a traditional culture in which large families are associated with greater wealth, Peng added.
China’s population was 1.4 billion at the end of last year, according to official data, more than two million fewer than the previous year and the first decline since 1962, as more people died than were born during the year.
Source: Rossa Primavera
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