China: Population in the country shrinks by more than 2 million in 2023

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In 2023, the country's population shrank by more than 2 million. And it is greyer as well as smaller: over a fifth of its people are now aged 60 or above. That's ultimately a problem when there aren't enough future workers to support the next generation of retirees. The demographic trend will have significant implications on the world's second largest economy.

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Transcript

00:00 Over 80 Chinese singles looking for love attend a private masquerade mixer at a Shanghai jazz bar.

00:06 Here graduates of only top universities under 35

00:11 mingle and flirt behind masks in search of Mr. or Miss Right.

00:15 I hope to marry within a year. If I get hitched this year, I'll have to prepare for the wedding, the honeymoon.

00:23 All those things will take a year.

00:26 Preparing for pregnancy also takes at least a year. At the earliest I'd probably get to be a father only after 35.

00:33 A delayed generation. That's how it is.

00:36 And often it's not just a delayed generation.

00:39 Shifting gender roles are also affecting demographics.

00:43 Women today are better educated than ever before in Chinese history.

00:51 And this should be something to be celebrated actually, but the government doesn't see educated women as a

00:58 great thing. They actually see that

01:02 as a threat to political stability in many ways.

01:07 And just recently Xi Jinping said that

01:10 women need to return to the home, return to these very beautiful roles of wife and mother.

01:20 Last year China's population fell by some 2 million people.

01:24 That puts the population at just over 1.4 billion.

01:27 China's birth rate slipped to just 1.09 children per woman, one of the lowest in the world.

01:33 High youth unemployment, the pressure for men to buy a home when getting married, and expensive childcare

01:40 also make starting a family seem out of reach for many.

01:43 That's a problem when there aren't enough future workers to support the next generation of retirees.

01:49 China's facing a demographic time bomb and really needs to increase the retirement age for China.

01:55 Right now most workers in state-owned enterprises retire at age 50 for women, 55 for men.

02:02 But the average life expectancy in China is actually longer here than it is in the United States.

02:07 Raising the retirement age to 65 would be an obvious way to address the problem.

02:13 But so far the government has been unwilling to pursue an unpopular policy that could destabilise the rule of the Communist Party.

02:20 Instead the country formerly known for its one-child policy wants women to have three.

02:26 [BLANK_AUDIO]

China: Population in the country shrinks by more than 2 million in 2023 | Oneindia News

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