Population Growth

The numbers are in, well estimated numbers that is, from China’s population growth from 2009 to 2010. At the end of the year, China’s population has grown to 1.34 billion, an added 6.3 million people from 2009. This jump is considered modest for such a large country and experts suggest China may relax its generation-old one-child policy.

Since 1979, the Chinese government has limited families in cities to one child and rural parents to two to control its population. It is estimated that these family planning rules have prevented more than 400 million births since it started three decades ago. Some experts say that China’s population is now mainly growing because people are living longer, not because people are having lots of babies. The U.S. Census Bureau projects that China’s population will peak at slightly less than 1.4 billion in 2026, with India overtaking China as the world’s most populous nation in 2025.

China’s National Population and Family Planning Commission has said that keeping the country’s birth rate low will remain a high priority for the next five years. The country has to think how they are going to cope with the care of their growing elderly population. Official census numbers are expected to come in the next few months. China conducted the first census in the past ten years just last year. I, personally, was visited by the official census folks one day when I first arrived in China. My language was not good enough to understand what they were saying, but I knew enough to say I was a foreigner.

I have friends that were born in cities that are only children and friends that were born out in the countryside that have brothers and sisters. It is unfortunate that China has to take such drastic measures to control their population and so many births are either aborted or stopped from the start. I also have witnessed what its like to live in a country with over a billion people. After traveling to Beijing, Hong Kong, and Shanghai (the most populated city in China) I realize how big a problem having an overpopulated country is. To put things in perspective, China has about one billion more people than the entire United States. Can you imagine trying to get around and how your lifestyle would change?

Chinese New Year decorations