China closed more than 30,000 preschools and primary schools in 2025, new data showed, in the starkest sign yet of the country’s demographic crisis.
Kindergarten enrolment has been plunging for years, with the number of registrations falling by a quarter just between 2020 and 2024.
Though Beijing has vowed to boost fertility rates, including by scrapping the country’s infamous one-child policy, its push isn’t winning over citizens: China’s live births per woman have fallen to just 1.0, far below the average in Asia, much of which is also facing a demographic crisis.
“China faces a unique challenge: Its society is getting old fast but has not become rich,” experts at US think tank Rand wrote.
