China demographic crisis looms as population growth slips to lowest ever

Students walk along a playground at an elementary school in Qingdao, in China's eastern Shandong province on May 11, 2021. - AFP

BEIJING, May 11 (Reuters): China's population grew at its slowest since the 1950s as births declined, sowing doubt over Beijing's ability to power its economy as it succumbs to the same ageing trends afflicting developed nations like Japan.

With growth having ebbed ever since a one-child policy was introduced in the late 1970s, the 2020 results of the country's once-a-decade census on Tuesday showed the population of mainland China increased 5.38% to 1.41 billion. That was the least since modern census-taking began in 1953.