China population rises 15.23 million in 2018, but rate slows

china_children Representative image | Wikimedia Commons

In 2018, China's population rose by 15.23 million people, marking a continued decrease in the growth rate of the world's most populous nation.

Numbers released by the National Bureau of Statistics on Monday put the population at 1.395 billion in 2018, marking a growth rate of .381 per cent over the previous year.

China was well-known for its one child policy. And due to this, now there are 30 million more men than women as families preferred boys due to cultural reasons. The Chinese government however recently abandoned the one-child policy. And one of the reason for the same was a fall in fertility rate.

The government estimates China's population will peak at 1.442 billion in 2029 before beginning to decline the year after.

India, the world's second most populous nation, has also been experiencing slower population growth. Its total population stood at 1.362 billion this month based on United Nations estimates.

Care for the elderly is a rising government concern in China as the working-age population continues to fall as a percentage of the total.

Chinese increasingly enjoy better living standards, education and health care, but a yawning gap between the wealthy and poor has experts saying the country will grow old before it grows rich.

Also Monday, the government announced China's 2018 economic growth fell to a three-decade low, adding to pressure on Beijing to settle a tariff war with Washington. The world's second-largest economy expanded by 6.6 per cent over a year earlier, down from 2017's 6.9 per cent, official data showed.

China's ruling Communist Party is trying to steer China to slower, more self-sustaining growth based on consumer spending instead of trade and investment. But the deceleration has been sharper than expected, prompting Beijing to step up government spending and order banks to lend more to shore up growth and avoid politically dangerous job losses.