Data from China’s latest nationwide census is expected to show a critical downward shift in the nation’s population trajectory, analysts said, making decisive reforms in population planning an urgent task for policymakers. The census results will show China’s population continued to grow over the last decade, the National Bureau of Statistics
announced last week, refuting a
news report that it would show an outright decline. However, demographers say the start of China’s population decline is likely to begin in the next few years.
The once-a-decade census, gauging changes in the size and diversity of China’s population, is an essential tool for future government policies. Beijing is currently in the process of implementing its new
five-year planthat will set economic and social targets for the 2021-25 period, and census data will play a big part in the upcoming policy debate.
