"Eungae~" Sound Stops... China's Second Birth Rate Drops Sharply by 21%P in 3 Years

Last year, the birth of second children in China sharply declined. Although Chinese authorities have introduced various birth encouragement policies, the widespread trend of marriage and childbirth avoidance among the younger generation has shown little improvement.

According to the National Health Commission of China on the 14th, among the 9.56 million newborns in China last year, the proportion of second children was 38.9%. The proportion of third or more children was 15%.

This is the first time in six years since China abolished its birth restriction policy and allowed second children in 2016 that the proportion of second children among annual births fell below 40%. Compared to 2019, when the proportion of second children was highest at 59.5%, it dropped by 20.6 percentage points. Compared to the previous year, 2021, when it was 41.4%, it decreased by 2.5 percentage points.

However, the proportion of third or more children, allowed since 2021, increased by 0.5 percentage points last year compared to the previous year.

In 2016, the first year China allowed second children, the annual number of newborns reached 18.67 million. However, it steadily decreased afterward, dropping to half that number (9.56 million) last year.

The sharp decline in second child births is attributed to the avoidance of marriage and childbirth and the preference for having only one child due to the burden of child-rearing costs. According to the "Global Child-Rearing Cost Analysis Report" released earlier by the Chinese Institute of Population and Development, the cost of raising a child until the age of 18 in China was estimated at 485,000 yuan (approximately 90 million KRW). The cost of raising a child through university graduation was estimated at 627,000 yuan (approximately 120 million KRW).

Due to the decrease in births among Chinese people, China's population last year recorded 1.41175 billion, a decrease of 850,000 compared to the previous year. This was the first time in 61 years since 1961 that China's population declined.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.