China’s Population Drops for the First Time in 60 Years

China’s population declined for the first time in sixty years, a turning point that came sooner than some expected amid a demographic crisis that could change the trajectory of the world’s second-largest economy.

The country’s population stood at 1.41 billion at the end of 2022, a decrease of 850,000 compared to 2021, according to data released by China’s bureau of statistics on Tuesday. The last time deaths outnumbered births in China was during Mao Zedong’s disastrous Great Leap Forward campaign, which caused widespread famine and an estimated 30 million deaths between 1958...