ISTANBUL

China’s population registered a fall for a second consecutive year last year, official data released on Wednesday showed.

The country’s population started shrinking in 2022 for the first time in six decades and it lost its tag of world's largest populated nation to India last year.

The data by China’s National Bureau of Statistics showed that the birth rate in the world’s second-largest population hit a new low while the death rate “hit a peak not seen in more than a half-century,” South China Morning Post reported.

“The overall population in mainland China fell by 2.08 million last year to 1.4097 billion, down from 1.4118 billion in 2022,” the Hong Kong-based daily said, citing official figures.

The number of new babies born last year was 9.02 million, down by 5.6% from 9.56 million in 2022.

“The falling number of new babies last year resulted in the lowest birth rate since records began in 1949, with 6.39 births for every 1,000 people compared with 6.77 in 2022,” according to the daily.

China’s National Bureau of Statistics also registered a growth of 5.2% in gross domestic product last year to hit 126 trillion yuan ($17.6 trillion).