Seven point nine two million babies. That is how many were born in China in 2025, down from 9.54 million the year before, and the lowest total in decades according to official statistics reported by NBC News.
The country’s population fell by 3.39 million over the year to 1.405 billion. It was the fourth consecutive annual decline, not the third, and the pace of loss quickened.
More deaths, fewer births
Deaths rose to 11.31 million from 10.93 million in 2024. Put the two columns side by side and the arithmetic is unforgiving. The National Health Commission’s bulletin, as carried by the Global Times, gave a birth rate of 5.63 per 1,000 people and a death rate of 8.04 per 1,000. Natural population growth stood at -2.41 per thousand in 2025. A year earlier it had been -0.99.
The 2024 figure had looked like a pause. Births climbed that year from 9.02 million in 2023 to 9.54 million. Then came 2025. Earlier in the sequence, China recorded 10.62 million births in 2021 and 9.56 million in 2022, so the slide over five years is steep.
Marriages offer little comfort
Marriage tends to come before babies, and here the data is no kinder. According to the NBC report, more than 6.1 million couples registered to marry, against 7.68 million in 2023, the largest drop on record.
Some demographers expect a small bump in births. The reason is administrative: couples may now register their marriage anywhere in the country instead of only at their place of residence, which makes the paperwork simpler.
The bill comes due
A smaller, older population is a problem for the Treasury as much as for the maternity wards. Hundreds of millions of workers will eventually leave the workforce, NBC noted, and pension systems face growing strain. That complicates Beijing’s efforts to lift domestic consumption and keep debt in check.
For all the talk of technological ambition, the salient point is a plain one. Fewer people are being born than are dying, and the gap widened last year.
Sources
- China's population falls for a fourth straight year, with births at lowest …
- China records 7.92 million births in 2025 as birth rate declines after 2024 rebound
