(Yicai Global) May 6 -- Cities in China’s northeast and Yangtze River Delta region are experiencing population shrinkage as local birth rates decline, younger people leave, and the ranks of their senior citizens swell.

Natural population growth, which excludes migration, fell below zero in at least 14 municipalities due to fewer newborns and an aging society, according to data for last year recently released by some regions.

Though the results of the seventh national census have yet to be published, the National Bureau of Statistics said last month that China’s population continued to grow in 2020.

In the northeast, the registered populations of Shenyang, Huludao, and Anshan in Liaoning province and Heihe in Heilongjiang province all fell in 2020. Based on 2019’s figures, most northeastern cities already had shrinking populations.

Due to the region’s economic downturn, young adults are moving to the southeast coast for work, Yi Baozhong, professor at Jilin University’s College of Northeast Asian Studies, told Yicai Global.

The population decline is also due to historical factors. The northeast strictly carried out China’s one-child policy that ended in 2016, Yi said. Before that, the region urbanized early and residents subsequently became less willing to have children, he added.

Municipalities in the Yangtze River Delta region, including Wuxi, Changzhou, and Yancheng in Jiangsu province and Shaoxing in Zhejiang province, have also reported reduced natural populations due to low birth rates and increasing numbers of senior citizens.

Jiangsu, the second-largest contributor to China’s gross domestic product, has a low birth rate for the same reasons as northeastern China, including early urbanization and the one-child policy. But its population is falling for another reason too.

Jiangsu is geared to manufacturing, while southern Guangdong and eastern Zhejiang provinces are more market-oriented and therefore attract greater numbers of migrant workers, Tian Boping of the Jiangsu Academy of Social Sciences told Yicai Global.

Additionally, more people are getting older everywhere. Shandong, Jiangsu, and Zhejiang, some of China's economically strongest provinces, are dealing with changing demographics as their populations have been rapidly aging since 2019.

Editor: Emmi Laine