China birth rate at 60-year low as new census shows population grew slightly to 1.412 billion

Mainland China’s population continued to grow, but at an increasingly slower rate, according to new census data released by the National Bureau of Statistics on May 11, 2021. The results of the once-in-a-decade census found that the country’s population stood at 1.412 billion in 2020, with national birth rates falling for the fourth consecutive year to a near 60-year low amid the pandemic. While the census results, which will shape China’s future social and economic policies, defied claims of a drop in the mainland’s population, demographers expect it to start declining in the next few years.