Beijing's Population Declines for First Time in Nearly Two Decades.

Beijing's population has declined for the first time in 19 years, with a drop of 84,000 permanent residents in 2022. China's national population also shrank last year for the first time since the great famine in 1961, due to a combination of factors including the one-child policy, changing attitudes toward marriage and family, gender inequality, and the challenges of raising children in expensive cities. Policymakers have launched various initiatives to reverse the trend, but many activists and critics say it's not enough to solve deep-rooted structural problems.