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| Source: China National Bureau of Statistics |
There was a time we worried about population explosions. Now we worry about population extinction.
China was the main culprit of population explosion. Until it wasn't.
The latest figures for 2025 are available, from China's own National Bureau of Statistics. The number of births in China in 2025, is down to the level that China last had in 1727... 300 years ago in the Qing Dynasty.
Imagine! Population births barely matching the number from three centuries ago...
What does this mean for the future?
Google Gemini:
After peaking at over 1.42 billion in 2021, current forecasts project that China's population will shrink by over 100 million people by 2050. By the end of the century, China's population may dwindle to less than 800 million, with more dire scenarios putting the figure at less than 500 million.
That's an issue that geopolitical analysts have to consider. As I'm sure they are. What it means for world peace, for example, is something. But What? More peaceful or less peaceful? Could be either, IMO.
Population-wise, things are even more dire in places like South Korea. At its current under replacement rate, in three generations, Korea will have only 3% of its population today. That's the extinction of a whole country.
Women across the world are choosing not to have children.
