The permanent populations of at least 10 provincial-level regions on the Chinese mainland fell in 2021, according to data released by statistic authorities from the country's 30 provinces and regions, which experts said was an expected crisis that needs to be fixed urgently.
Northeast China's Heilongjiang Province lost 460,000 permanent residents compared with the previous year, the most significant decline nationwide. North China's Hebei and Shanxi and Northwest China's Gansu provinces each lost more than 100,000 people in the same period.
China's population reached 1.41 billion as of the end of 2021, up by 480,000 from the previous year, according to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS). From a national perspective, the natural population growth rate in 2021 was 0.34 per thousand, which was declined by 1.11 per thousand than 2020, NBS data shows.
Behind the slowdown in population growth was the continued decline in births, as a result of a decline in the number of women of childbearing age as well as a decline in fertility levels.
The number of women of childbearing age in China decreased by about 5 million in 2021 compared with 2020, among which women aged 21 to 35 decreased by about 3 million. Affected by social factors such as delays in the age of first marriage, the total fertility rate of women of childbearing age continued to decline in 2021.
There has also been a trend of uneven distribution of the population, with Northeast China suffering from the most significant "depression" in natural population growth, while South China's Guangdong Province and East China's Zhejiang Province accounted for the largest number of births and net increases in the country.
