China's fertility rate drops to ‘record’ low of 1.09 in 2022: Report

A report by China’s state-backed National Business Daily, on Tuesday (August 15), said that the country’s fertility rate has plunged to a record low of an estimated 1.09, last year. This comes as officials in Beijing were already stressed about marriages in China dropping to a historic low in 2022, amid its declining birth rate and population.

What did the report say?

The state media report cited data from China’s Population and Development Research Center which shows that Beijing has the lowest fertility level among countries with a population of more than 100 million.

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This also comes amid Chinese officials’ attempts to boost the country’s declining number of new births after it witnessed the first population drop in six decades while its current population continues to rapidly age.

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China’s fertility rate was already among the lowest alongside South Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Singapore. However, Beijing has introduced urgent measures as well as incentives to lift the birth rate, this also includes financial incentives and improved childcare facilities.

Meanwhile, as per Reuters, high childcare costs and having to press pause or a complete stop on their careers have put many women off having more children or any at all. However, Chinese authorities have also begun the rhetoric of sharing the duty of child-rearing.

Back in June, China reported a historic low in marriages with just 6.83 million couples completing their marriage registrations in 2022. The drop followed Covid restrictions keeping tens of millions locked in their homes or compounds for weeks last year.

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Hong Kong facing similar issues

In a separate report released by Hong Kong’s Family Planning Association, on Tuesday (August 15), the number of childless women in the city has more than doubled from five years ago to 43.2 per cent last year.

Additionally, the survey conducted in the special Chinese administrative region also showed that the percentage of women with one child and two children both fell by approximately 10 percentage points, to 27.4 per cent and 25.2 per cent respectively.

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Meanwhile, the average number of children per woman dropped from 1.3 in 2017 to a record low of 0.9 last yearin Hong Kong despite a desire among women to have more children, the report noted.

(With inputs from agencies)

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