According to the data of the State Bureau of Statistics, the resident population, who lived in the state for at least 6 months during the year, decreased by 272 thousand in 2022 to 126 million 570 thousand.
This is the first decrease in the resident population since 1978, when the state’s data began to be retained.
According to a statement from the bureau, the reduction was due to workers coming to work out of state temporarily returning to their hometowns due to the impact of the COVID-19 outbreaks in 2022.
In the statement, it was stated that the reverse migration of migrant workers who could not continue to work due to quarantine measures that disrupted economic activities was a “temporary stage”.
The state, which is the country’s most important production and trade center, has a large population of migrant workers. According to population data, 29.6 million workers came to Guangdong to work from abroad in 2020, while migrant workers made up 23.5 percent of the population.
However, strict prevention measures and numerous quarantine decisions implemented throughout the country during the COVID-19 epidemic negatively affected production and exports, while also limiting worker migration.
Cell phone signal data points to Guangdong province emigration in 2022.
The population of China, the world’s most populous country, fell for the first time since 1961 last year. According to the data of the National Bureau of Statistics, the population of mainland China decreased by approximately 850 thousand people in 2022 and decreased to 1 billion 411 million 800 thousand.
The country’s birth rate fell to 6.77 per thousand, the lowest level since national records began to be kept.