ТASHKENT, January 20. /Dunyo IA/. The population of China decreased by 3.39 million in 2025, reaching 1.404 billion, reports Dunyo IA correspondent.

According to the Russian news agency RIA “Novosti”, in 2025 the population of China, excluding residents of Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan as well as foreign nationals, totaled 1.404 billion, a decrease of 3.39 million compared with 2024. Data from the National Bureau of Statistics of China indicate that the birth rate last year was 5.63 per mille, while the death rate stood at 8.04 per mille.

In terms of gender, the male population of China in 2025 stood at 716.85 million, while the female population was 688.04 million.

By age group, the number of people aged 16 to 59 totaled 851.36 million, accounting for 60.6% of the country’s total population. The population aged 60 and above reached 323.38 million or 23% of the total population, including 223.65 million people aged 65 and older, representing 15.9% of China’s total population.

Modern China is facing serious demographic challenges, including a gender imbalance and an aging population, the agency notes. One of the underlying causes was the “one-child policy”, introduced in the late 1970s, which restricted urban families to a single child and allowed rural families to have two children if the first was a girl. Additionally, the number of people choosing to marry has been steadily declining: in 2022, China recorded a historic low of approximately 6.8 million marriages, the lowest figure in 37 years.

In 2013, authorities began to relax these restrictions, allowing couples in which at least one spouse was an only child to have a second child and in 2016, this allowance was extended to all couples. In the summer of 2021, the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress approved amendments to the Population and Family Planning Law, officially permitting families to have a third child and abolishing previously imposed fines and benefits, according to RIA “Novosti”.