Ministry of Public Security statistics show that the number of births registered based on hukou, or household registration, last year was 10.04 million, down 14.89 percent from 2019.

That is a marked drop in births, indicating that the decline that began in 2016 is speeding up.

Like it or not, China has entered a low-birthrate stage much earlier than expected, while the aging of its society is accelerating as projected. The country's demographic structure is undergoing abrupt changes that will influence its socioeconomic development.

The rising cost of raising children, exorbitant housing prices, the lack of enough good schools and hospitals to meet an increasing population's demands, and people's fast-changing views about having children have all served to push the country's birthrate to new lows over the past few years.

After the bar on having two children was lifted about five years ago, couples' decision to have a second child saw a brief spurt before dipping further.

The country's working age population has fallen by about 30 million since 2012. If the fertility rate doesn't rise soon, the continuous contracting of the labor pool will become unavoidable, giving rise to a series of social and economic problems.

That some cities scramble for skilled workers, professional talents and college graduates itself reflects the seriousness of the problem. And cities are able to meet the shortfall only at the cost of declining rural areas, making the already unbalanced development in the country more lopsided. This will only make the rise of the country's vast western, central and northeastern regions more difficult.

Policymakers should recognize the urgency of the matter, in order to avert the world's most populated country from registering negative population growth, which will only make the challenges posed by a declining population more acute.

As such, raising a child should not be regarded as a family's responsibility alone any more, as it will hold a greater sway on the future of the country.

It is good to hear that the central authorities have vowed to optimize pro-childbirth policies, making them more "inclusive". Governments of various levels must waste no more time in translating that pledge into concrete action so as to at least win more time for the country to prepare for the turning point of its population growth.