China’s birth rate dropped for a fifth consecutive year to the lowest level since the communist regime took control of the mainland, official data showed on Jan. 17.
The rapidly shrinking birth rate underscores authorities’ continuing challenges in boosting its population as it grapples with an aging population and an impending shortage of workers. In 2016, it scrapped the nearly five-decade-old “one-child policy” in a bid to jumpstart population growth, although the high cost of urban living has deterred couples from having more children.
