Ammon News - Population in China has slowed dramatically and is expected to start to shrink before 2025, the state backed Global Times reported, citing a senior health official.

The number of new births in 2021 was the lowest in decades in the country’s several provinces, birth data released late on Sunday showed.

The Global Times indicated that the number of births in central Hunan province fell below 500,000 for the first time in nearly 60 years, noting that only Guangdong province, southern the country, has had more than one million new births.

China is battling to reverse a rapid shrinkage in natural population growth as many young people opt not to have children due to factors including the high cost and work pressure.