Thousands of kindergartens closed across China as birth rate declines

Beijing: Hit hard by China’s deepening demographic crisis, thousands of kindergartens have been closed as child enrollment fell sharply across the country due to a significant decline in birth rates, according to an official report.

In 2023, the number of kindergartens fell by 14,808 to 274,400, according to the annual report of the Chinese Ministry of Education. It is the second consecutive annual drop in the latest indicator of falling birth rates in China.

The number of children enrolled in kindergarten declined for the third year in a row, falling 11.55 percent, or 5.35 million, last year to 40.9 million, the South China Morning Post, based in China, reported Sunday. Hong Kong, citing the ministry’s report.

The number of primary schools also fell by 5,645 to 143,500 in 2023, a drop of 3.8 percent.

The decline reflects a broader demographic shift in China – where both birth rates and total population continue to decline – posing a serious threat to future economic growth, which is already slowing, according to the Post report.

Last year, China’s population fell for the second year in a row, to 1.4 billion, a decline of more than two million. Only nine million births were registered in China in 2023, the lowest number since records began in 1949.

As a result of declining birth rates, China last year ceded its long-standing status as the most populous country to India, whose population has surpassed China’s.

China faced a double crisis. While, on the one hand, birth and fertility rates have decreased, there is also a sharp increase in the elderly population.

China’s population aged 60 and older approached 300 million by the end of 2023. Projections suggest it will surpass 400 million in 2035 and reach 500 million in 2050, state news agency Xinhua reported earlier this month. .

According to the Post report, an increasing number of daycare centers have become senior care centers and many of their employees have changed jobs to care for seniors.

The growing number of elderly Chinese, who have had to endure the strict decades-old one-child policy, rely heavily on state support for social security, putting pressure on state finances amid the weakening economy. .

Officials attribute China’s severe demographic crisis to the decades-old one-child policy that was scrapped in 2016, after which China allowed all couples to have two children.

Failing to make any impact, China revised population policy in 2021, allowing people to have three children in a bid to address couples’ reluctance to have more children due to rising costs.

As the costs of pensions and geriatric care rose, China last month raised the retirement age for men from 60 to 63 and that of female office workers from 55 to 58.

“The burden of caring for the elderly is intensifying, all in the midst of economic stagnation,” said He Yafu, an independent demographer based in Guangdong province.

“Kindergarten operators must adapt strategically to meet new challenges, such as expanding early childhood education to include children under three years old and establishing an integrated system of care and education,” he told the Post.

National Health Commission data from 2021 showed that more than 30 percent of Chinese families with infants and toddlers in China need child care, but only 5.5 percent have enrolled their children in daycare or kindergarten. infants.

China wants to make it easier to get married and harder to divorce amid a shrinking and aging population.

With PTI inputs

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