Nurses take care of newborn babies at a hospital in Zunyi, southwest China's Guizhou Province. Photo:Xinhua

China's National Health Commission (NHC) on Friday released a statistical bulletin on the country's health development in 2025, which showed that China recorded 7.92 million births last year, with the birth rate declining after a rebound in 2024, Jiangsu News reported on Friday. 

China's population stood at 1.4 billion at the end of 2025. The country recorded a birth rate of 5.63 per 1,000 people, while the number of deaths stood at 11.31 million, with a mortality rate of 8.04 per 1,000, according to the bulletin.

Data released by health authorities over the past five years showed that China recorded 10.62 million, 9.56 million, 9.02 million, 9.54 million and 7.92 million births annually from 2021 to 2025, respectively. After the country's birth rate rose by 0.38 per thousand year-on-year in 2024, it declined in 2025, according to Jiangsu News.

The country continued to record negative natural population growth. Data previously released by the National Bureau of Statistics showed that China's natural population growth rate stood at -0.99 per thousand in 2024, when the total population decreased slightly. According to the latest bulletin, the natural population growth rate stood at -2.41 per thousand in 2025.

Global Times