Chinese population challenges: fewer girls, more old people

Editorial – Chinese population challenges: fewer girls, more old people • A rapid slowdown in population growth p. 1 • The proportion of over-65s should double in the next 25 years p. 2 • More boys than girls p.3 • From the threat of growth... to the problem of ageing p. 4 C N TE N TS duction. There were fewer births in those years and mortality was exceptionally high. After a return to normal in 1962, the number of births dropped in the 1970s. Fertility also started falling rapidly, from 5.7 children per woman on average in 1970 to below 3 in 1980, as the government birth control campaign got under way. (Figure 3). Despite the one-child policy launched in Though the population of China has almost doubled since the 1960s and now exceeds 1.3 billion, it is no longer perceived as a threat. China has undergone profound demographic upheaval over the last forty years and its turbulent history is reflected in a population pyramid that illustrates the new challenges facing the country: the prospect of an ageing population and a shortage of young girls.