Name: Why China's population is shrinking
Uploaded: 2023-03-27T20:40:14.000Z
Duration: 7 min 40 s
Description: Thousands of YouTube videos with English-Chinese subtitles! Now you can learn to understand native speakers, expand your vocabulary, and improve your pronunciation...

This chart shows China's  birth and death rate

But in 2022, China had  more deaths than births

To get why this is such  a big deal, consider this:

China is the world's  manufacturing superpower

and that's in large part because of  its huge population.

Nearly 30% of the country's  economic output

Now, here's China's population  over the last 60 years.

Even after losing almost  a million people in 2022

its population is still about  as big as it's ever been:

But that's projected to shrink  by nearly half

Over the years, China's growth  and policies

have contributed to  its population decline.

one of the most gruesome  famines on record.

If we look at that on the  birth and death rates chart

At the same time, the  birth rate dropped

But, as often happens with wars, famines, and other major crises

immediately after, there was  a baby boom.

China's average family  now had 6 children.

which the government saw  as a big problem.

The government came out  with a policy...

They called it “Later, Longer, Fewer”.

Later marriages, longer birth intervals,  and fewer births.

As a result, China's birth rate  started trending down...

but it wasn't low enough  for China's leaders.

And in 1980, they implemented  the extreme one child policy

which limited most families  to one child.

That policy was also backed up  by very harsh measures.

There were campaigns  of sterilization...

And while these campaigns began  during the Later, Longer, Fewer era

they were at their worst  under the one child policy

when China sterilized 20 million  men and women

and induced nearly 15 million  abortions in a single year.

these restrictive policies  worked a little too well.

each couple needs to have,  on average, 2.1 children.

The idea is that one child  replaces one parent

and that 0.1 makes up for  children who die

in 2016, China finally ended  the one child policy.

And after briefly trying out  a three child policy,

in 2021 they finally let families have  as many children as they'd like.

One big reason is the  unique family structure

We're looking at what's called a  4-2-1 family structure

with a couple having 4 parents above them  and 1 child below.

Most countries have diverse  family structures

millions of only children are under  increasing pressure

to care for their aging parents  and elderly grandparents.

And this can make having  multiple children even harder...

especially as the cost of living  keeps rising.

A recent survey revealed that more than  50% of young people

We have seen cash subsidies  for additional birth

Well, the thing is, almost none of them  have worked

because having a child is  exceedingly expensive

But China's population crisis  isn't just about babies.

It's also about the balance  between young and old.

If we look at population pyramids that show distribution by age...

with rapid population growth  look like this:

Subtitles ListPlay Video

Why China's population is shrinking

tough

crisis

average

experience