Newborn population drops in Shandong

The eastern province of Shandong, dubbed as "the most daring region to give birth" in China, reported a slump in newborn population last year, the 21st Century Business Herald reported.

The province earned itself the name because Shandong recorded a year-on-year increase of 530,000 births in 2016 after China scrapped the one-child policy, accounting for about 40 percent of the country's total new births.

In addition, the proportion of babies born to families that already had one child in 2016 reached 63.3 percent in 2016, up by almost 70 percent from the previous year, according to the provincial health authority.

However, recent data released by local health authorities revealed widespread decline in the number of newborns has undermined its reputation for booming fertility.

The coastal city of Qingdao catalogued 90,000 births in 2018. From January to November, the number of newborns has dropped by 21.1 percent year-on-year and that of second children down by 29 percent.

Major cities with a population of more than 5 million, including Liaocheng, Yantai and Dezhou, also reported drop in newborns in the first half of 2018, ranging from 16 to 36 percent.

Though the provincial health authority has not released its official data covering the whole region, Cui Shuyi, head of the institute of population research at the Shandong Academy of Social Sciences, said the declining birth is normal as there are fewer women of childbearing age.

"Based on available data, a substantial amount of birth drop is definite," Cui said.

He added that Shandong's fertility situation is representative of the nationwide picture. In 2017, second children born in Shandong province took up 13 percent of the country's total.