insert_link World Japan birth rate falls to lowest on record New data shows that the speed of depopulation in Japan is in-creasing. The country’s fertility rate and number of new births fell to a record low in 2023. Chris Gilbert reports from Tokyo: todayJune 6, 2024 17
insert_link Lifestyle South Africa’s ageing population comes with new challenges. How best to adapt to them By Lauren Johnston, University of Sydney Young people – under the age of 15 – currently make up 29% of South Africa’s population. But this will soon change: the aged portion of the population is forecast to rise from 2030, bringing many challenges. Lauren Johnston, an economics and political economy expert, recently published a paper on the subject. We asked her to put the developments into perspective. What is […] todayJanuary 22, 2024 14
insert_link Business / Economics China’s population shrinks again and could more than halve – here’s what that means By Xiujian Peng, Victoria University China’s population has shrunk for the second year in a row. The National Bureau of Statistics reports just 9.02 million births in 2023 – only half as many as in 2017. Set alongside China’s 11.1 million deaths in 2023, up 500,000 on 2022, it means China’s population shrank 2.08 million in 2023 after falling 850,000 in 2022. That’s a loss of about 3 […] todayJanuary 19, 2024 16
insert_link World China’s population shrinks for a second year in a row China's population fell in 2023 for the second year in a row – down by two million, as births and deaths continue to drop. The overall population fell in 2023 to 1.409 billion, down 2.08 million people from the previous year. Although the economy grew last year slightly faster than the government's target. Here's Andrew Wood in Hong Kong. todayJanuary 17, 2024 11