BEIJING — China’s population grew by the slowest increase on record last year, even as a decline in new births slowed.

Total population in the mainland, excluding foreigners, reached 1.41 billion people as of the end of last year — an increase of 480,000 people compared to 2020, the National Bureau of Statistics said Monday.

The most alarming part of today’s data release is the fact that natural population growth has fallen to 0.034%. This was the first time this happened. [increase]Since data began, below 0.1% [became]Available,” Zhiwei Zhang (chief economist, Pinpoint Asset Management) stated in Monday’s note.

He said that the low growth rate indicates China’s population is ageing faster than anticipated and may indicate that China’s population has reached its maximum in 2021. Zhang explained that this “indicates China’s possible growth slowing more than expected.”

It is ageing rapidly in the second largest economy on earth. Beijing last year announced that couples could have up to three children. further loosening family planning policiesThis limit on the number of children in a household was for many decades.

Official data shows that new births on mainland China declined by 13% between 2021 and 10.62 million. According to data, this represents a decline of 22% from 2020 and 10.62 million babies in the preceding year.

Natural growth rate is the difference in live births and death per year divided by the annual average population multiplied by 1000.

In 2016, the rate increased compared with the year before, following a policy shift that permitted families to have two children. But, natural growth rates have been declining steadily over the past few years.

The natural growth rate for China in 2021 of 0.034% was the lowest ever since 1960, when it experienced population declines, data from the Wind Information Database shows. Data from the Wind Information database showed that for every other year after 1952, the natural rate of growth was higher than 0.1%.

In 2020, the natural growth rate was 0.455% and in 2019, it was 0.332%.

Ning Jizhe, National Bureau of Statistics Commissioner, answered questions about Monday’s population numbers. She said that part of the slower growth was due to a decrease in women of childbearing years.

Ning said that the number of women aged 21-35 declined 3 million by 2021. Ning stated that China’s annual birth rate is likely to stay above 10,000,000 per year and that the country’s total population will probably remain at 1.4 billion in the near future.