China’s birth rate dropped to a new low in 2020, confirming the demographic challenge facing the government as it tries to deal with a shrinking labor force and growing population of elderly people. There were 8.5 births per 1,000 people last year, the lowest in data back to 1978, according to the latest yearbook from the National Bureau of Statistics. The government didn’t give reasons for the tumbling birth rate, but the new figures confirm population growth in the world’s No. 2 economy is slowing dramatically, with some demographers estimating it could start falling as soon as this year. The number of newborns may ... (full story)