Number of deaths in China 2001-2023

In 2023, the total number of deaths in China amounted to around 11.1 million. The number of deaths increased slightly but steadily over the past two decades. This trend is mainly related to China’s demographic development and is expected to accelerate in the upcoming years.

China’s aging society

China had the second largest population on earth in 2023. However, population growth in China has gradually decreased over the last decades and finally turned negative in 2022. Together with steadily improving health standards and growing life expectancy, this has led to a quickly aging society. As relatively large age cohorts are now reaching the years of retirement, the number of elderly in the country is projected to increase quickly. This is especially visible in the number of people aged 80 years and above, which is expected to rise more than four-fold from 32 million in 2020 to 135 million in 2050. This development will probably be the main factor leading to a growing number of mortalities in China in the upcoming years.

China’s mortality rate in comparison

Globally, China’s mortality rate is at a low range at slightly less than eight deaths per thousand inhabitants annually. The low mortality rate was a result of political stability and steady improvements in the health system. As the Chinese population grows older, cancer, heart attacks, and cerebrovascular diseases are increasingly common causes of death. In comparison to most Western countries, the number of fatalities due to COVID-19 was low in 2020 and 2021, but most probably increased in the following two years. Most common infectious diseases with high death rates in China were AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Hepatitis B in 2021.