Henan, China’s third most populous province, reported a reduction of 110,000 permanent residents in 2022 compared to 2021. Several other provinces have also reported various degrees of population decline.
On Feb. 20, the central Henan provincial statistics bureau announced its second year of population decline.
In 2022, Henan recorded 98.72 million permanent residents, a reduction of 110,000 people from 2021.
Henan’s population was reportedly 98.83 million in 2021, a decrease of 580,000 people from 2020, which was 99.41 million.
Negative Population Growth
In 2022, the province reported 733,000 births and 741,000 deaths; that translates into a population growth below zero for the entire province.
Henan officials interpreted the “decline of the population” as the province’s “birth continuing to decrease and the number of deaths increasing” due to factors such as a decline in women at childbearing ages, women’s attitudes towards giving births, and delayed marriage, population outflow, and an aging population….