China is poised to report its first population decline in five decades following a once-in-a-decade census, the Financial Times newspaper said, citing sources familiar with the matter.
A population drop will add pressure on Beijing to roll out measures to encourage couples to have more children and avert an irreversible decline.
The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), which is due to release the results of the census late last year in early April, did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.
The population figure is very sensitive and will not be published until government departments have a consensus on the data and its implications, the Financial Times added on Tuesday, citing its sources.
"If China confirms such a decline, it would be a big deal," said Zhiwei Zhang, the Shenzhen-based chief economist at Pinpoint Asset Management.
"The consensus expects China's population to peak at 2027, based on the projection made by the United Nations. This would be much earlier than the market and policy makers expected."
No explanation has been given for the delay in announcing the result, although the bureau said this month that more preparatory work was needed.
In recent months, China's state media have been saying the population may start to shrink in the next few years.
In 2016, China scrapped a decades-long one-child policy in the hope of boosting the number of babies, replacing the measure with a two-child policy.
At the time, it also set a target to boost its population to about 1.42 billion by 2020, from 1.34 billion in 2010.
But the birth rate has continued to decline.
