China's population decline can be traced back to the restrictive family-planning policies launched in the 1970s and an impressive economic boom fueled by China's huge labor force. China's modernization brought rapid urbanization, rising income levels, and better education to large parts of the country.
China has become overpopulated due to many reasons, but the most plausible explanations are mostly because of food and water. Given that China has large areas of fertile land and good access to fresh water, it has the capacity to produce vast quantities of food to nourish large numbers of its people.
Japan's population has fallen for the 12th consecutive year, as deaths rise and the birth rate continues to sink, according to government data released Wednesday. The population stood at 124.49 million in 2022 – representing a decline of 556,000 from the previous year, figures show.
The city's population of permanent residents fell from 21.88 million in 2021 to 21.84 million in 2022, a decline of 84,000. The number of migrants in Beijing – many of whom leave their rural homes to find work in the city – also fell from 2021 to 2022.
The country's population decline in 2022 followed years of slowing birth rates. China will be replaced by India this year as the most populous country in the world amid an accelerating shift by multinationals to move more manufacturing to other parts of Asia, such as Vietnam, Malaysia, India and Bangladesh.
India to overtake China as world's most populous country in April 2023, United Nations projects. 24 April 2023 - China will soon cede its long-held status as the world's most populous country.
Russia's Population Decline Hits Record Rate
But even in the case of the average outlook, Russia's population is expected to dip below 146 million in the early parts of the 2021-2100 forecast period unless compensated by 900,000 migrants a year throughout that period.
If the current fertility rate persists, the South Korean population — which has already been in decline since 2020 — could fall from its current level of 51 million to as low as 34 million by 2067. The persistence of an abnormally low fertility rate will have serious consequences for South Korea's economy.
India has added more than a billion people since independence in 1947, and its population is expected to grow for another 40 years. But its population growth rate has been declining for decades now, and the country has defied dire predictions about a "demographic disaster".
When did the one-child policy end? The end of China's one-child policy was announced in late 2015, and it formally ended in 2016. Beginning in 2016, the Chinese government allowed all families to have two children, and in 2021 all married couples were permitted to have as many as three children.
Demographic regrets
In 2015, the Chinese government did something it almost never does: It admitted it made a mistake, at least implicitly. The ruling Communist Party announced that it was ending its historic and coercive one-child policy, allowing all married couples to have up to two children.
The one-child policy (Simplified Chinese: 一孩政策) was a population planning initiative in China implemented between 1979 and 2015 to curb the country's population growth by restricting many families to a single child.
Possible scenarios
In the International Journal of Forecasting study's median scenario, the global population is 11.1 billion in 2100, 10.4 billion in 2200 and 7.5 billion in 2300.
While many assume population decline would inevitably harm the economy, researchers found that lower fertility rates would not only result in lower emissions by 2055, but a per capita income increase of 10 percent. Lower fertility rates also typically signal an increase in gender equality.
Japan's population of more than 125 million has been declining for 16 years and is projected to fall to 87 million by 2070.
Dropping birth rates are a result of a number of reasons, such as growing living expenses, an increase in the number of women in the workforce, as well as easier access to contraception, which encourages women to have fewer children. The declining social and cultural values are a major factor in Japan's low birth rate.
The trend of Asian populations growing and moving to cities — providing cheap labour, demand for modern infrastructure and high economic growth — has reached a turning point with China now joining countries with shrinking populations in the region.
The current population of Australia is 26,374,141 as of Monday, June 19, 2023, based on Worldometer elaboration of the latest United Nations data.
China is forecast to lose almost half of its people by 2100, plunging from more than 1.4 billion to 771 million inhabitants. Russia, Germany, South Korea and Spain are all set to join this downward movement, with their populations beginning to decline by 2030.
South Korea's fertility rate, the lowest in the world, holds lessons for us all South Korea's government has moved aggressively to encourage more childbirth, but its ongoing struggles point to the complexity of a challenge that is only becoming more salient around the world.
In April 2023, India's population is expected to reach 1,425,775,850 people, matching and then surpassing the population of mainland China (figure 1).
China's population growth rate surpassed the world average from 1949 to the late 1970s. Under Mao's leadership, the government promoted pro-natal policies and remunerated families not according to their productivity but by the number of workers.
As the world's third largest and fastest growing major economy, China presents enormous opportunities for U.S. workers and firms but also considerable challenges.
Earth's capacity
Many scientists think Earth has a maximum carrying capacity of 9 billion to 10 billion people.