The Silver Lining of a Shrinking Population
Birth rates are falling in China, Europe and elsewhere, but it may not be a disaster in the end.
This article is for subscribers only.
There has been a lot going on this week. So you might be forgiven for not noticing the release of the most important number of the decade so far: 7.92 million. That was the number of children born in China last year. It sounds like a lot, but it isn’t. It is down from 14.7 million in 2019 and means that the nation’s total population fell by 3.4 million people last year.
The Chinese population is falling faster, and aging faster, than even the most pessimistic forecasts suggested. Remember the people who used to say that China would get old before its people got properly rich? They were right.