Generous cash incentives to encourage births are paying off in one Chinese city, where the number of newborns saw a 17 per cent surge in 2024, bucking a continuous downward trend observed since 2016.
Tianmen, a city of about 1 million people in the central province of Hubei, welcomed 1,050 more newborns last year than in 2023 according to government figures unveiled last week, a rare bright spot amid a national trend of falling birth rates and an ageing population – both of which present challenges to long-term prosperity.
