(Yicai Global) Jan. 4 -- The birth rate in Henan, China’s most populous province, fell to a 22-year low in 2020 due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Henan’s birth rate was 0.924 percent that year, according to the province’s recently released statistical yearbook. Based on a population of 99.4 million, the number of newborns in Henan fell to about 920,000, the lowest since 1978, despite being the most of any province, Yicai Global calculated.

Of the 14 provinces and municipalities that have so far disclosed their 2020 birth rates, 10 reported a figure of below 1 percent.

The rates for Tianjin, Jiangsu, and Beijing were the lowest at 0.599 percent, 0.666 percent, and 0.698 percent, respectively, as couples in more economically developed areas worry more about current life quality than the future, according to Dong Yuzheng, director of the Guangdong Academy of Population Development.

Guizhou, Guangxi, Gansu, and Hainan were the only four provinces with birth rates above 1 percent.

China’s overall rate was 0.852 percent in 2020, below 1 percent for the first time since 1949, when the country began to calculate the rate, according to the China Statistical Yearbook published last November. Lower incomes and more restrictions on social activities due to the outbreak of Covid-19 led to a sharp decline in births in the short term, Dong told Yicai Global at that time.

Editors: Dou Shicong, Futura Costaglione