Regional population surveys are showing early signs that the number of births continued to drop across the country in the first half of this year-but at different rates.
Surveys in hospitals and communities in other areas, including Shaanxi, Anhui, Sichuan and Hebei provinces, also found a shrinking newborn population in the first half, with the rate of decrease ranging from 3 percent to 10 percent.
Chongqing reported about 68,400 births among a total population of about 31 million from January to May, a decrease of nearly30percent compared with the same period last year.
据报道,今年1月至5月,重庆3100万人口中,新生人口约为6.84万,同比下降了约30%。
In Weifang, Shandong province, health authorities said 55,800 babies were born in the first half of the year, down 13.4 percent year-on-year, Dazhong Daily reported.
据《大众日报》报道,山东潍坊卫生部门表示,今年上半年共有5.58万名婴儿出生,同比下降13.4%。
新生儿数量由什么决定
华中科技大学人口所所长石人炳教授说,每年新生儿的数量很大程度上取决于生育率(fertility rate)和育龄女性的数量(the number of women of childbearing age)。
The fertility rate required to maintain population levels is 2.1 children per woman.
维持人口水平所需的生育率是平均每名女性生育2.1个子女。
而在中国,这两个决定性因素(determinants)都在下降:
The number of women aged 15 to 49 peaked in 2011 and has been declining since then, and the fertility rate is just below 1.7, according to the World Population Prospects 2019 report released by the United Nations in June.
The National Health Commission's population research center put the fertility rate at 1.55 last year, compared with an average of 1.65 in the past decade. The center said the peak since the launch of the second-child policy was 1.8.
The statistics bureaus in Yan'an, Shaanxi province, and Pingquan, Henan province, both said a major factor in declining birthrates was a lack of willingness to have children among couples of childbearing age due to the mounting costs of raising a child.
The trend revealed in regional data made public recently highlighted the need to roll out more supportive measures in addition to the universal second-child policy, including improved pregnancy care and nursery services, to encourage more births, local authorities said.