China’s population grew to 1.341 billion by the end of 2010, the National Bureau of Statistics has announced.
The preliminary figure, based on a sample survey, shows China added 6.3 million people last year, up from 1.3347 billion at the end of 2009.
The slower growth rate, compared with 2009, has prompted some experts to suggest adjusting the decades-old family planning policy. The current policy limits most urban couples to just one child.
A more accurate figure is expected to come out in April, after the government tallies the results of the census in 2010. A census is carried out once a decade.
“The figure will be very close to the census results,” said Yuan Xin, a professor with Tianjin-based Nankai University’s population and development institute. He is also a leading member of the National Population and Family Planning Commission (NPFPC).
“It may compel policymakers to adjust current population policies as early as April,” he told China Daily.
He suggested that the adjustment should allow urban couples, if either was a single child, to have a second child.
But as the family planning rules differ regionally, “there won’t be a uniform policy change”, Yuan said.
Local authorities will act based on the local situation to adjust the policy upon endorsement by the central authorities, he said.
In fact, population policies have undergone constant adjustment. In the late 1990s, almost all cities, except those in Henan province, began to allow urban couples, who were both single children, to have a second baby.
But urbanisation and economic development have resulted in people having fewer babies, regardless of restrictions, he said.
The population is projected to peak at 1.5 billion by 2030.
China has maintained a low fertility rate - the total number of children a woman would bear during her lifetime - at about 1.8, for 13 years, official statistics showed.
That means China has generally accomplished the goal set in the late 1970s when the family planning policy was first rolled out, experts said.
Zhao Baige, deputy chief of the NPFPC, said the 30-year-old family planning policy, which prevented 400 million births on the mainland, fuelled China’s economic miracle and improved people’s livelihoods.
However, it has led to an increased percentage of elderly people and labour shortages, experts said.
Zeng Yi, a population economist with Peking University, estimated that with a birth rate of 1.8, the working population in China will dwindle by 10 million people each year after 2025, and the number of young people - aged 20 to 24 - will fall by a quarter in the 2030s.
Cai Yong, an assistant professor at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, was quoted by the AP as saying that allowing more births now will help the country cope with looking after its large and increasing elderly population.
“To have a stable society, you better start now to think ahead of time because it takes 20 to 30 years to have another generation come down the line,” he said.
Any change in population policy would have major consequences, said Li Bin, minister of the NPFPC, in December.
“We have to be highly cautious about that,” she noted.
Zhao, NPFPC deputy chief, said earlier that the commission was researching “a comprehensive and sustainable population policy, which covers not only the size, but the structure, quality and mix of the population”.
The entire world is over-populated. We are producing three babies to one death. We must drop the birth rate to be less than the death rate. One in four women can have one baby. We have already caused the sixth major extinction in the history of the planet by consuming and destroying natural habitats for other species.
We are also destroying our natural resources that sustain life on the planet, including the sources of the oxygen in the air we breathe, fresh water and nutrients in the soil. We continuously flush the poisons we spray on plants to the oceans, killing what is left of the fish and plants.
Governments and big business will have to continually downsize to get to a reasonable population level. Large cities are insane. They must disappear along with the disease, crime and poverty they foster. We need to live in small communities and share our resources with other species.
We must learn that love and respect comes from each of us and that means respecting and loving the Earth. Living in harmony instead of competition. It is a huge task and starts with loving that special baby unconditionally. That child will love and respect themselves so they will naturally love and respect others.
The world leaders in population growth are still China, India and the USA. Older people can be trained to work. We must get thru the difficult times ahead otherwise, we will be extinct by the end of this century. It is the universal law of cause and effect.
Unfortunately at the rate we are destroying the planet to make room for, feed and supply the increased population each day, we will kill what sustains all life.
2 comments:
China’s population now stands at 1.34b
ANN
01 March 2011
China’s population grew to 1.341 billion by the end of 2010, the National Bureau of Statistics has announced.
The preliminary figure, based on a sample survey, shows China added 6.3 million people last year, up from 1.3347 billion at the end of 2009.
The slower growth rate, compared with 2009, has prompted some experts to suggest adjusting the decades-old family planning policy. The current policy limits most urban couples to just one child.
A more accurate figure is expected to come out in April, after the government tallies the results of the census in 2010. A census is carried out once a decade.
“The figure will be very close to the census results,” said Yuan Xin, a professor with Tianjin-based Nankai University’s population and development institute. He is also a leading member of the National Population and Family Planning Commission (NPFPC).
“It may compel policymakers to adjust current population policies as early as April,” he told China Daily.
He suggested that the adjustment should allow urban couples, if either was a single child, to have a second child.
But as the family planning rules differ regionally, “there won’t be a uniform policy change”, Yuan said.
Local authorities will act based on the local situation to adjust the policy upon endorsement by the central authorities, he said.
In fact, population policies have undergone constant adjustment. In the late 1990s, almost all cities, except those in Henan province, began to allow urban couples, who were both single children, to have a second baby.
But urbanisation and economic development have resulted in people having fewer babies, regardless of restrictions, he said.
The population is projected to peak at 1.5 billion by 2030.
China has maintained a low fertility rate - the total number of children a woman would bear during her lifetime - at about 1.8, for 13 years, official statistics showed.
That means China has generally accomplished the goal set in the late 1970s when the family planning policy was first rolled out, experts said.
Zhao Baige, deputy chief of the NPFPC, said the 30-year-old family planning policy, which prevented 400 million births on the mainland, fuelled China’s economic miracle and improved people’s livelihoods.
However, it has led to an increased percentage of elderly people and labour shortages, experts said.
Zeng Yi, a population economist with Peking University, estimated that with a birth rate of 1.8, the working population in China will dwindle by 10 million people each year after 2025, and the number of young people - aged 20 to 24 - will fall by a quarter in the 2030s.
Cai Yong, an assistant professor at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, was quoted by the AP as saying that allowing more births now will help the country cope with looking after its large and increasing elderly population.
“To have a stable society, you better start now to think ahead of time because it takes 20 to 30 years to have another generation come down the line,” he said.
Any change in population policy would have major consequences, said Li Bin, minister of the NPFPC, in December.
“We have to be highly cautious about that,” she noted.
Zhao, NPFPC deputy chief, said earlier that the commission was researching “a comprehensive and sustainable population policy, which covers not only the size, but the structure, quality and mix of the population”.
The entire world is over-populated. We are producing three babies to one death. We must drop the birth rate to be less than the death rate. One in four women can have one baby. We have already caused the sixth major extinction in the history of the planet by consuming and destroying natural habitats for other species.
We are also destroying our natural resources that sustain life on the planet, including the sources of the oxygen in the air we breathe, fresh water and nutrients in the soil. We continuously flush the poisons we spray on plants to the oceans, killing what is left of the fish and plants.
Governments and big business will have to continually downsize to get to a reasonable population level. Large cities are insane. They must disappear along with the disease, crime and poverty they foster. We need to live in small communities and share our resources with other species.
We must learn that love and respect comes from each of us and that means respecting and loving the Earth. Living in harmony instead of competition. It is a huge task and starts with loving that special baby unconditionally. That child will love and respect themselves so they will naturally love and respect others.
The world leaders in population growth are still China, India and the USA. Older people can be trained to work. We must get thru the difficult times ahead otherwise, we will be extinct by the end of this century. It is the universal law of cause and effect.
Unfortunately at the rate we are destroying the planet to make room for, feed and supply the increased population each day, we will kill what sustains all life.
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