Torrential rains lash multiple cities in China
Torrential rains have lashed multiple cities in south China's Guangdong Province including Zhongshan and Zhuhai, with 58 rainstorm alerts in effect across the province.
The study by China Academy of Social Sciences (CASS) warned that the country must implement policies to handle a smaller workforce and an older population.
China’s population will peak in 2029 at 1.44 billion before beginning a period of “unstoppable” decline, a government report said.
The study by China Academy of Social Sciences (CASS) warned that the country must implement policies to handle a smaller workforce and an older population, the BBC reported on Sunday.
Both changes combined – long-term population decline and a continuously ageing population – could cause “very unfavourable social and economic consequences”, the report said.
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In 2015 the world’s most populous country ended its one-child policy in a bid to tackle the problems.
According to latest UN estimates, China has a population of 1.41 billion.
The study, appearing in CASS’s Green Book of Population and Labour, said that working population numbers were now stagnating, with a low fertility rate set to cause further issues.
By the middle of the century, China’s population is expected to drop to 1.36 billion – a fall in the labour force of close to 200 million.
The study also predicted a rise in the dependency rate (increase in the proportion of non-working people like the elderly and the children).
While relaxing the one-child policy will help long-term, in the short-term it will create more dependents, according to the report.
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