According to data published on Monday by the National Bureau of Statistics of China, by the end of 2025, the country's population decreased by 3.39 million people, totaling 1.404 billion. This information was reported by RIA Novosti.
As the bureau indicates, in 2025, excluding residents of Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan, as well as foreigners, the population amounted to 1.404 billion, which is 3.39 million less compared to 2024. The birth rate last year was 5.63 per thousand, while the death rate reached 8.04 per thousand, according to the bureau's data.
In 2025, the male population of China was 716.85 million, while the number of women was 688.04 million, as also noted in the bureau's reports.
By age category, the number of people aged 16 to 59 was 851.36 million, accounting for 60.6% of the total population of the country. At the same time, 323.38 million people, or 23%, are elderly individuals aged 60 and older, of which 223.65 million belong to the group aged 65 and older, which constitutes 15.9% of the entire population of China, according to the bureau's data.
According to the bureau's information, in 2025, the number of urban residents reached 953.8 million, an increase of 10.3 million compared to the previous year. Meanwhile, the rural population decreased by 13.69 million, and the share of the urban population constituted 67.89% of the total number of residents in the country.
China today faces serious demographic challenges, such as gender imbalance and an aging population. One of the reasons for this phenomenon is the "one family, one child" policy introduced in the late 1970s, which limited the number of children families could have, especially in urban areas.
