China's 2020 census shows the country has the slowest population growth in decades since the introduction of the one-child policy in the 1970s in the official records dating back to the 50s.

China, the most populated country in the world, adopted the one-child policy in the late 1970s to halt the rapidly growing population growth. However, the policy was loosened in 2016 with a two-child limit.

The 2020's census showed the Chinese population to record 5,38%.

That compared with an increase of 5.84% to 1.34 billion in the 2010 census, and the double-digit percentage rises in all of China's previous six official population surveys dating back to 1953.

The number meant China narrowly missed a target it set in 2016 to boost its population to about 1.42 billion by 2020.

From 2016 to 2019, the annual birth rate mostly declined with the exception of 2016. China has yet to disclose the birth rate for 2020.

"A sharp decline in the number of births is a sure thing, and all kinds of evidence support this claim," said Huang Wenzheng, a demography expert at the Center for China and Globalization, a Beijing-based think-tank.

"It doesn't take published census data to determine that China is facing a massive drop in births," Huang said. Even if China's population didn't decline in 2020, the expert said, "it will in 2021 or 2022, or very soon."

Urban couples, particularly those born after 1990, value their independence and careers more than raising a family despite parental pressure to have children.