Reversing the effects of the one-child policy is set to take a very long time.
A teacher and students at a preschool in Luannan County, Hebei, China. Credit: Inzyx via Depositphotos
China has just announced that births in 2025 plunged to 7.92 million, from 9.54 million the previous year — and almost half of what was projected (14.33 million) when the one-child policy was repealed in 2016. In fact, China’s births have fallen to a level comparable to that of 1738, when the country’s total population was only about 150 million.
An excerpt from a National Bureau of Statistics release covering 2025 data. Credit: National Bureau of Statistics
Having finally acknow
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