Number of Kindergartens in China Drops by 25% in Four Years
Falling birth rates in China have deeply impacted the early childhood education system. Over the past four years, the number of kindergartens in the country has decreased by 25%. According to data from the Ministry of Education, the number of children enrolled in kindergartens dropped from 48 million in 2020 to 36 million in 2024, and 41,500 kindergartens were shut down.
Experts say this decline has become a “permanent part” of the system and is unlikely to be reversed. Stuart Gietel-Basten, Director of the Center for Aging Science at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, described the drop in birth rates as “extremely sharp.” He also argued that this demographic crisis offers an opportunity for reform in the education system, suggesting that the resources freed up by the shrinking student population could be redirected toward building a higher-quality educational infrastructure.
Since the end of China’s one-child policy in 2016, the country’s population has been on a downward trend for three consecutive years. Although births rose by 520,000 in 2024 to reach 9.3 million following a record low in 2023, the increase was still not enough to offset deaths. Birth numbers have declined by nearly half since the 2017 peak of 17.9 million.