The population of mainland China was calculated at 1.41 billion in 2020, a 5.38% increase from 2010, but short of the goal of 1.42 billion the government had set as a goal in 2016 and a slower growth rate than the previous decade, Reuters reports.
The government of China set a “one-child policy” in the 1970s to control population growth, but that was lifted in 2016 with a “two-child policy” in a goal to grow the population of the country faster.
Statisticians at the United Nations have predicted that China’s population will start falling in 2030 as the children of the “one-child” policy become the largest part of the population. A source to Reuters said that the population of mainland China fell from 2020 compared to 2019, but official Chinese numbers do not support that claim.
The United States population also saw a similar growth slowdown in the 2020 Census, with the US only growing by 7.4% from 2010 to 2020, the slowest growth rate since the 1940 Census. The 2020 Census was the third consecutive Census show a US growth slowdown, since topping 13% growth in 2000.