The number of newborn babies in China sunk to a near six-decade low last year, reinforcing worries about the value of a lower birth rate on the economy and therefore the country’s ability to support its rapidly aging population within the year ahead.

Chinese mothers gave birth to 14.65 million babies last year, down from 15.23 million in 2018, consistent with data from the National Bureau of Statistics released on Friday. Last year’s figure was rock bottom since 1961.

China’s overall population continued to grow, rising to 1.4 billion at the top of the year from 1.39 billion a year earlier.

The weak birth data was within the expectations of the many veteran demographers who for years involved the Chinese government to abandon its one-child birth policy – which led to 2016 – due to the damage it might do to future economic processes and therefore the nation’s ability to support its aging population. Fewer births mean fewer wage earners and fewer consumers within the future. In 2019, China’s economy grew 6.1 percent from a year earlier, rock bottom since 1990, consistent with the NBS.

The working-aged population between 16 and 59 years old was 896.4 million at the top of last year, accounting for 64 percent of the entire population. the amount of Chinese aged over 60 was 253.8 million, or some 18 percent of the national total.

The new figures also proved that the advantages of China’s decision to relax its birth restrictions have fallen well in need of expectations. After Beijing allowed Chinese couples to possess two children from 2016, the new birth rose briefly to 17.86 million in 2016 but has fallen per annum since.

Demographers have claimed that China’s birth numbers were overstated over the last decade to 2016 to delay the loosening of the one-child policy. a scarcity of public information from the local levels made it harder to double-check official figures.

Sometimes official data has been contradictory. The National Health Commission, which carries out a national birth policy, publishes an annual yearbook that has birth data collected from local hospitals. In last year’s version, the entire number of live births in 2018 was listed at around 15.21 billion, which wasn't far away from NBS’s estimated 15.23 million supported a national survey. But adding up provincial data produced a complete of 13.62 million live births within the same yearbook. the shortage of explanation only added to skepticism over the standard of official data.