Beijing: Experts believe that China's population shrank last year for the first time in decades, media reports said on Friday.

The government’s official data for the total number of births in 2022 — expected to be released next week — will probably show a record low of 10 million, according to independent demographer He Yafu, reports Bloomberg.

That would be less than the 10.6 million babies born in 2021, which was already the sixth straight year of decline and the lowest since the founding of the People’s Republic of China in 1949.

He told Bloomberg that the country likely recorded more deaths last year than the 10.1 million people who died in 2021, in part because of the spread of Covid infections.

COVID-19 cases also spiked in the country in recent times.