China‘s population continues to increase. Slowly, more and more slowly, but it increases again. In a few years, it will begin a decline, but it will not be before ten years, according to the authorities. The peak of population should indeed be reached in 2029, with 1.44 billion inhabitants, against a little less than 1.4 billion currently.
The major economic developments that China has seen since the 1980s have profoundly changed the face of the country. Forced industrialization, crazy urbanization, construction of infrastructures of all kinds throughout the country, extreme pollution, economic internationalization, disruption of family structures…
Internal migrants are hundreds of millions, looking for jobs and housing, as well as a better life. China has entered the modern age of forced march and is no longer able to back down. And do not want it, rightly. Poverty has fallen sharply, the quality of life has risen to the standards of the most developed countries.
Fertility has been declining steadily for decades, and the end of the infamous one-child policy has only slightly reversed the trend. Yet about 50% of children born in 2018 already have a sister or brother. The number of workers is dropping drastically, and aging is causing major adjustment problems in a country where the elders have always been supported by the younger generations. What is no longer the case, like the most developed countries. Retirees are expected to represent a growing burden in the coming decades. In 2017, they were 240 million. In 2035, they will be 400 million. And before the end of the century, the country’s population could fall below one billion inhabitants.
