China’s 6th national census shows a fertility rate in Jilin province in the Northeast of only 1.03 percent, much lower than the national average of 1.5, especially in Changchun, the capital, where many families are postponing childbirth or do not plan to have a child.

In discussing the reasons for this, Fu Cheng, of the Jilin Social Sciences Academy, remarks, “The cost of having a child is high, so many young people have give up on babies, which is common sense if the cost of raising a child takes up a large amount of a family’s income.”

In addition to the lower birth rate, there is the outflow of the province’s labor force which is bringing the population figure down.

In fact, the two other provinces in the Northeast -- Heilongjiang and Liaoning -- are experiencing similar conditions and the census data show a net outflow of 1.8 million people from the three provinces.

The decreasing population could slow the economic revitalization efforts in the region, while, at the same time, the depressed economy can accelerate the outflow.