China's working age population is shrinking

BEIJING — China's working age population is shrinking as a share of the total number of people in the country, according to official data released Wednesday.

People ages 16 to 59 accounted for 61.3% of mainland China's population last year, down from 62% the prior year, National Bureau of Statistics data showed.

The country is rapidly aging as fewer people have children and lifespans increase. Births have fallen despite Beijing's efforts in the last decade to start to unwind restrictions on households to one child each.

A shrinking working age ratio means fewer people have to support a larger share of the population, even as the number of people in China overall declines.

China's total population dropped by more than 2 million people to 1.41 billion in 2023 from the prior year. That was a far greater decline than the drop of 850,000 people in 2022 from the year earlier — the first time the country's population shrank since the 1960s.

China's working age population has declined after reaching a peak in 2011, UBS analysts said in a report last month.

"A shrinking working age population along with structural shifts in labor supply demand dynamics are accelerating the adoption of technology — from automation and robotics to digitalization and AI — to 1) meet labor needs and 2) raise productivity while saving costs," the analysts said.

They noted there are still opportunities for China to boost its workforce productivity by boosting vocational education, tapping oversupply in rural labor and raising the retirement age.

In the last year, China's youth unemployment has soared to record highs above 20% amid slowing economic growth and a mismatch between available jobs and skills.

The statistics bureau in the summer suspended its release