China’s Fertility Rate Drops To Record Low

According to the National Business Daily, China’s fertility rate in 2022 dropped to a record low of 1.09 from 1.15 in 2021. The state-backed Daily said the figure from China’s Population and Development Research Center put it as having the lowest fertility level among countries with a population of more than 100 million. China’s fertility rate is already one of the world’s lowest alongside South Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Singapore. China has said it will focus on education, science and technology to improve population quality and strive to maintain a “moderate fertility” level to support economic growth in future.

Hong Kong’s Family Planning Association said in a separate release on Tuesday that the number of childless women in the special Chinese administrative region more than doubled from five years ago to 43.2% last year. The percentage of couples with one or two children also tumbled while the average number of children per woman dropped from 1.3 in 2017 to a record low of 0.9 last year, according to its survey.