The population of China is expected to peak at 1.45 billion in 2030, then drop to 1.4 billion by 2050 and 1.1 billion by the end of this century. Wang Pei’an, deputy head of the National Health and Family Planning Commission, released the numbers at a March 11 press conference in Beijing, reported China’s Global Times, a daily newspaper that operates under the auspices of the People’s Daily, the official newspaper of the Chinese Communist Party.
“China does not lack in population, not in a few decades, not in 100 years,” said Wang, who added the country should focus more on demographics and education levels.
According to Wang, China’s working age population—it includes those between 15 and 64 years and contains the key travel-age population—is a little over 1 billion and accounts for 73 percent of the total population. The working age population will gradually drop to 985 million in 2020 and to around 800 million by 2050.
In comparison, In the U.S. the working age population accounts for 66 percent of total population;in Europe, it is 67 percent; and in Japan, 61 percent.
“Although the total working age population in developed countries in the US and Europe is around 730 million, which is less than our 1 billion, they have a much higher productivity rate,” Wang said, noting that the drop in workers will be compensated by advances in technology.
Last year, China relaxed its decade-long birth control policy, allowing couples to have a second child if one of the parents has no siblings. Wang said the implementation of the second-child policy is “within expectation.” China expects the average yearly number of births to vary between 17 million and 19 million from this year to 2020, Wang added.
