Evelyn Cheng@chengevelyn

Key Points

• China’s population declined in 2022, the National Bureau of Statistics said Tuesday.
• The drop was the first since the early 1960s, according to Yi Fuxian, a critic of China’s one-child policy and author of the book “Big Country With an Empty Nest.”
• Mainland China’s population, excluding foreigners, fell by 850,000 people in 2022 to 1.41 billion, the statistics bureau said. The country reported 9.56 million births and 10.41 million deaths for 2022.

People venture out on the Bund promenade along the Huangpu River in Shanghai on Jan. 16, 2023.

Hector Retamal | Afp | Getty Images