BEIJING, Nov. 8 (Xinhua) -- Eight Chinese provincial-level regions recorded positive natural population growth rates in 2023 as the government steps up efforts to tackle demographic challenges, with experts believing that China still has strong human-resource potential.

The regions of Xizang, Ningxia and Guizhou led those with positive natural population growth rates, according to the newly released China Statistical Yearbook 2024 compiled by the National Bureau of Statistics.

Among them, three regions reported birth rates above 10 per thousand, with Xizang leading with a rate of 13.72 per thousand, followed by Guizhou at 10.65 per thousand, and Ningxia at 10.02 per thousand.

China has moved to enhance childbirth support and address the challenges of a rapidly aging population. The latest move came last week, as the country introduced a series of birth support policies aimed at building a society more conducive to raising children.

A directive from the State Council outlines 13 targeted measures to enhance childbirth support services, expand child-care systems, strengthen support in education, housing and employment, and foster a birth-friendly social atmosphere.

Signaling a shift amid policies to address the challenge of an aging population, official data shows that the number of marriage registrations in China rose again in 2023, after dropping for nine consecutive years.

The yearbook indicated that China recorded more than 7.68 million marriage registrations in 2023. Approximately 11.94 million Chinese people married for the first time last year, up 13.52 percent from the previous year and marking the first upturn in the number of newlyweds in the country since 2014.

With factors including population size, labor-force participation rate, education and health status accounted for, China's human resources will remain at a higher level in the coming period, maintaining an advantage over other countries, Wang Qinchi, a researcher at the China Population and Development Research Center, told Xinhua in an interview.

He pointed to rapid improvements in health and education as key factors that have softened the impacts of a declining working-age population.

Adding to the demographic changes, the population aged 65 and above reached 216.76 million by the end of 2023, with the dependency ratio of the elderly population standing at 22.5 percent, meaning that, on average, every elderly person will be supported by 4.4 people of working age.

Citing projections that the dependency ratio of China's elderly population is expected to remain below the average for upper-middle-income countries until 2035, and below the average for high-income countries until 2050, Wang said that China's overall age structure still remains advantageous, providing a solid foundation for its economic growth.

As one of the world's most populous countries, China faces the mounting challenge of its 1.4-billion-strong population aging at a rapid rate. It is projected that the number of citizens aged 60 or above will surpass 400 million by 2033 and approach 500 million by 2050. At that point, seniors are expected to account for nearly 35 percent of the nation's population.

In response to these demographic shifts, China has gradually relaxed its family-planning policies over the past decade, phasing out the decades-long one-child policy. In 2021, it announced support for couples who wish to have a third child.

Local governments across China have since put in place a series of stimulus measures for childbirth, including subsidies, expanded insurance coverage, extended maternity leave, and more public child-care facilities. Enditem

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