(This March 21 story was updated on March 22 to add comment
from demographer in paragraphs 4-6, details in paragraph 11)
BEIJING, March 21 (Reuters) - The death rate in China's
capital Beijing surpassed its birth rate in 2022, official data
showed on Tuesday, pushing its natural population growth into
negative territory for the first time since 2003.
The death rate in the city of 21.84 million, one of the
country's most populous urban centres, rose to 5.72 deaths per
1,000 people, while the birth rate fell to 5.67 births per 1,000
people, official statistics released by the Beijing government
showed.
Beijing's population decline was in line with national
trends, with China's population falling last year for the first
time in six decades, weighed down by rising living costs
especially in big, sprawling cities like Beijing, weak economic
growth, and changing attitudes towards raising a family.
"These figures are expected, especially for Beijing," said
Xiujian Peng, senior research fellow at the Centre of Policy
Studies at Victoria University in Australia.
The birth rates in Beijing and other cities and
provinces are calculated based on the permanent residents not
including migrant population, she said.
"Given the high living and education cost and education
levels in Beijing, it is very normal that the birth rate of
permanent residents is low," she said adding that Beijing's
figures were consistent with the national average figure.
In early December, a nationwide lifting of strict COVID-19
curbs triggered a wave of infections and caused an unknown
number of deaths.
Beijing's natural population growth was minus 0.05 per 1,000
people last year.
The data was based on a sample survey that began on Nov. 1,
according to a footnote in the release, which did not specify
how long the survey took.
China's birth rate last year was 6.77 births per 1,000
people, the lowest on record, while the country's death rate,
the highest since 1974, was 7.37 deaths per 1,000 people.
Concerned by China's shrinking population, political
advisors to the government have come up with more than 20
recommendations to boost birth rates, though experts say the
best they can do is to slow the population's decline.
(Reporting by Albee Zhang and Ryan Woo in Beijing and Farah
Master in Hong Kong; Editing by Ed Osmond and Jamie Freed)
