Walk on a breakpoint, a daily look and an ever-changing culture through the lens of

unchanging truth.

The Colson Center, I'm John Stone Street.

Last year, the population of the nation of China dropped by at least 2 million people.

That numbers over double the nation's population decline in 2022.

For context, that would be like the US losing the entire population of the state of Nebraska

or the city of Houston in a single year.

And what continues to drive China's drastic decline in population is a drop in births.

In the last five years, the number of births there has dropped by almost half, according to China's National Bureau of Statistics.

In 2017, China reported 17 million births.

In 2023, it reported only 9 million. That's a number that fails to replace

the 11 million who died that year. In 2016, China revoked its infamous one-child policy.

In more recent years, local governments and corporations have made concentrated efforts to encourage

and even financially incentivize citizens to have more kids.

In Hong Jo, the local government offered $2,800 to those who had a third child in the year

2023.

And when Jo, parents were offered over $400 for every child they had.

Some companies are now offering cash bonuses for the first five years of a child's life.

And yet, despite all these efforts, China's population continues to decline,

even more than the year before. To be clear, though its situation may be the most dramatic,

China is not the only country that faces population decline.

Countries across the developed world from Europe to East Asia have birth rates that are well below

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