The Graying World

Start worrying about too few people:

Canada this year will have more seniors than children for the first time in its history, data show. Statistics Canada yesterday identified the greyest cities in the country: “The number of beneficiaries of the Old Age Security basic pension is projected to increase.”

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Korea's population dwindled for the third year running last year, firmly establishing the decline in the statistics, according to data from the Ministry of the Interior and Safety on Sunday.

 

The country's population shrank by 200,000 or 0.4 percent to reach 51.44 million by the end of last year. It was the third decline in a row from a peak of 51.85 million in 2019. The pace is also picking up. 

 

In 2020, the population shrank by just 20,000 in 2020, but that speeded up to 190,000 in 2021.

 

A ministry official said, "This is largely due to the falling birthrate because many young people don't want to have babies." Only 254,628 babies were born last year, falling below 260,000 for the first time.

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Some demographers expect China’s population in 2022 to post its first drop since the Great Famine in 1961, a profound shift with far-reaching implications for the global economy and world order.

New births for 2022 are set to fall to record lows, dropping below 10 million from last year’s 10.6 million babies – which were already 11.5% lower than in 2020.

“With this historical turn, China has entered a long and irreversible process of population decline, the first time in China and the world’s history,” said Wang Feng, professor of Sociology at University of California.

“In less than 80 years China’s population size could be reduced by 45%. It will be a China unrecognizable by the world then.”