Category Archives: Population

Percentage of Australians born overseas at highest level since 1893

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The Indian-born population grew the most, rising by more than 90,000 people to take the diaspora to almost 846,000 in total at June 2023

The share of Australians born overseas has surpassed 30% for the first time since 1893, after record migration in the year to June 2023 pushed the figure out of its Covid-induced plateau.

Australia drew in an additional 500,000 foreign-born residents, taking the total to 8.2 million out of the 26.6 million in the country in June, according to Australian Bureau of Statistics latest data, released on Wednesday.

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Everyone in Japan will be called Sato by 2531 unless marriage law changed, says professor

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Sato will become the only option by 2531, suggests modelling as part of campaign to overturn outdated law requiring spouses to have same surname

Japanese citizens will all have the same family name in 500 years’ time unless married couples are permitted to use separate surnames, a new study has suggested as part of a campaign to update a civil code dating back to the late 1800s.

The study, led by Hiroshi Yoshida, a professor of economy at Tohoku University, projected that if Japan continues to insist that couples select a single surname, every single Japanese person will be known as “Sato-san” by 2531.

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South Korea’s fertility rate sinks to record low despite $270bn in incentives

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Average number of births per woman falls to 0.72 in country that already has the world’s lowest rate, and has spent billions since 2006 to reverse the trend

South Korea’s demographic crisis has deepened with the release of data showing its birthrate – already the world’s lowest – fell to a new record low in 2023, despite billions of dollars in government schemes designed to persuade families to have more children.

Reports that South Korea’s population had shrunk for the fourth straight year came soon after neighbouring Japan reported a record decline in its population last year, along with a record fall in the number of births and the lowest number of marriages since the end of the second world war.

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Cost of raising children in China second-highest in world, thinktank reveals

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Expense and challenge of balancing work and family life key factors in declining birthrate and shrinking population

China is one of the most expensive places in the world to raise a child, outstripping the US and Japan in relative terms, a prominent Chinese thinktank has said.

A report released on Wednesday by the Beijing-based YuWa Population Research Institute found that the average cost of raising a child in China until the age of 18 is 538,000 yuan (£59,275) – more than 6.3 times as high as its GDP per capita, compared with 4.11 times in the US or 4.26 times in Japan.

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UK population projected to grow to nearly 74m by 2036

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Rise of almost 10% over 15 years would see 70m mark passed by 2026, a decade earlier than previously projected

The UK population is projected to grow to 73.7 million by mid-2036, according to new figures from the Office for National Statistics, which predicts hitting the 70 million mark a decade earlier than previously thought.

This represents an increase of about 6.6 million, or 9.9%, from the estimated 67 million in mid-2021.

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China to hold nationwide survey on population changes as birthrate plummets

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Poll comes as Beijing is urgently trying an array of measures to lift the country’s birth rate including financial incentives

China’s National Bureau of Statistics will conduct a nationwide sample survey in November to help better plan population policies, as authorities struggle to boost the country’s flagging birthrate.

Concerned about China’s first population drop in six decades and its rapid ageing, Beijing is urgently trying an array of measures to lift the country’s birthrate including financial incentives and boosting childcare facilities.

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Closure of maternity wards fuels Chinese debate over population decline

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Recent shutdown of obstetrics units not officially linked with falling birth rate – but online commentators speculate

A number of hospital obstetrics units in China have closed, prompting discussion about the effects of China’s dramatically falling birthrate.

Several hospitals in Zhejiang province have reportedly closed or downsized their obstetrics units, along with hospitals in Jiangsu and Guangdong.

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China region offers cash ‘rewards’ for newlyweds if bride is under 25

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China’s eastern county of Changshan has made the offer in an effort to promote ‘age-appropriate marriage and childbearing’

A county in eastern China is offering couples a “reward” of 1,000 yuan ($137) if the bride is aged 25 or younger, the latest in a series of measures to incentivise young people to get married amid rising concern over a declining national birthrate.

The notice, which was published on Changshan county’s official WeChat account last week, said the reward was to promote “age-appropriate marriage and childbearing” for first marriages. It also included a series of childcare, fertility and education subsidies for couples who have children.

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Australia’s population to grow at slowest rate since federation, intergenerational report forecasts

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Australians are expected to live longer and remain healthier to an older age, while having fewer children over the next 40 years

Australia’s population is forecast to grow at its slowest rate since federation, the latest intergenerational report from Treasury has found.

The report, which forecasts what the next four decades will look like, has found population growth is projected to slow to an annual average of 1.1% over the next 40 years, compared to 1.4% over the past four decades.

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China’s fertility rate dropped to record low in 2022, estimates show

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Figure fell from 1.15 in 2021 to 1.09, the lowest of any country with a population over 100 million

China’s fertility rate dropped to an estimated record low of 1.09 in 2022, the lowest of any country with a population over 100 million, according to government data.

Demographers from the China Population and Development Research Centre, a Chinese government research institution, released data indicating that last year’s fertility rate fell to 1.09 from 1.15 in 2021, below Japan’s rate for the same time period and only slightly higher than South Korea’s, which was estimated to be 0.8.

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Ukraine’s birth rate plummets in aftermath of Russian invasion, data shows

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In 2023, an average of 16,000 babies have been born a month, compared to as many as 23,000 babies born monthly before Russia’s invasion

Ukraine’s birthrate has fallen by 28% since the start of the war, according to new data, with 38,324 fewer babies born in the country in the first six months of this year compared with 2021, before Russia invaded.

While birthrates have been declining by 7% per yer since 2015, according to Ukrainian data analytics company OpenDataBot, the drop from 2021 to 2023 is the largest since Ukraine gained independence in 1991. The next steepest drop was in 2015, in the aftermath of Russia’s annexation of Crimea.

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Japan’s population drops by nearly 800,000 with falls in every prefecture for the first time

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Changing demographics are affecting nearly every part of society, while efforts to turn around the decline have so far had little impact

Every one of Japan’s 47 prefectures posted a population drop in 2022, while the total number of Japanese people fell by more than 800,000. The figures released by the Japan’s internal affairs ministry mark two new unwelcome records for a nation sailing into uncharted demographic territory, but on a course many other countries are set to follow.

Japan’s prime minister has called the trend a crisis and vowed to tackle the situation. But national policies have so far failed to dent population decline, though concerted efforts by a sprinkling of small towns have had some effect.

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Lockdown or loneliness? Covid brought on a ‘kind of stressful’ baby boom in Australia

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New data shows the birthrate went up in 2021, after a record low in 2020 and years of decline

A pandemic might not seem like the ideal time to have a baby, but new data backs up the idea that Covid precipitated a baby boom.

According to an Australian Institute of Health and Welfare report – Australia’s mothers and babies – a record 315,705 babies were born in 2021, while the birthrate itself was up to 61 per 1,000 women of reproductive age from 56 per 1,000 the year before.

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Victorian Liberals to meet on senator’s future; Stoker says she’s ‘fine’ – as it happened

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Urgent meeting called for this weekend after allegations raised against the senator in parliament. This blog is now closed

Independent Senator Lidia Thorpe says “at this stage” she will be voting no on the government’s bill for a referendum on the Indigenous voice to parliament.

She’s told ABC Radio her position on the voice is:

At this stage, I’ll be voting no to the bill that is before us to change the constitution, given the government have not come forward with proof on what their interpretation of sovereignty is.

I know that for months now that they continue to say that this does not affect the sovereignty of First Nations people in this country, however, they’ve never provided any evidence.

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Australia’s population grew at fastest rate since 2008 amid post-Covid migration boom

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The 1.9% increase to a total of 26.3m is down to more overseas students and temporary workers, but experts say the rise will flatten out

Australia’s population grew at its fastest rate in more than 13 years in 2022, in part due to a post-pandemic migration boom.

But while the figures are significant, demographer Dr Elin Charles-Edwards warned that a large portion of the migrants were only in Australia temporarily to address critical labour shortages and the numbers would fall over the coming years.

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Can your suburb help fix Australia’s housing crisis? It all comes down to density

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Despite adding millions of people and dwellings over the past decade, our cities are well behind globally in terms of population density

Skyrocketing rents and a projected home shortage have sparked fierce debate on the most effective ways to address Australia’s housing crisis.

Experts say one of the most effective fixes is to increase the supply of housing, specifically infilling urban areas to increase the density of areas where people actually want to live.

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Indian ministers rebuke Der Spiegel for ‘racist’ cartoon mocking population size

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German magazine accused of putting down India with caricature depicting population overtaking China

A cartoon in the German magazine Der Spiegel poking fun at India as it becomes more populous than China has been castigated as “racist” by Indian ministers.

The cartoon shows a rickety old Indian train packed with people and swarms of passengers atop it. On a parallel track, a sleek Chinese bullet train is seen with just two drivers, looking surprised at the sight of the Indian train.

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India overtakes China to become world’s most populous country

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Milestone marks the first time since 1950 that China has dropped to second place in global population ranks

India has overtaken China as the world’s most populous country, according to UN population estimates, the most significant shift in global demographics since records began.

According to the UN’s projections, which are calculated through a variety of factors including census data and birth and death rates, India now has a population of 1,425,775,850, surpassing China for the first time.

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India’s population set to overtake China’s by June, UN figures show

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UN population officials say it is not possible to pinpoint a date because of uncertainty about data

India is expected to overtake China as the world’s most populous country with almost 3 million more people by the middle of this year, according to UN figures.

The State of World Population 2023 report by the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) estimates India’s population will be 1.4286 billion by the end of June, compared with China’s 1.4257 billion.

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Beijing’s population falls for first time since 2003 as China battles low birthrate

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Chinese capital saw more deaths than births in 2022 as high cost of living and education as well as legacy of one-child policy take their toll

Beijing’s population has declined for the first time in almost two decades, new population figures have revealed.

In 2022 there were more deaths than births in the Chinese capital, home to more than 21 million people, resulting in a natural population growth of minus 0.05 per 1,000 people. It is the first time the population has gone backwards since 2003.

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