China’s declining birthrate is rapidly reshaping its education system. According to Caixin, China closed 21,400 kindergartens in 2025, reducing the national total to 231,900—an average of nearly 59 closures per day. The number of preschool children fell by 3.58 million, or about 10 percent, to 32.25 million.
Private kindergartens have been hit particularly hard. With 91.5 percent of preschool children enrolled in affordable, state-supported kindergartens, private institutions face growing enrollment pressure and declining demand.
Primary schools are experiencing a similar contraction: about 8,000 schools closed in 2025, while first-grade enrollment fell 9.6 percent to 14.61 million and the total primary-school population declined by 4.06 million.
China’s strict “one-child policy” contributed to a prolonged decline in births. The birthrate briefly increased after the government introduced the two-child policy in 2016, but began declining again the following year and fell more sharply around 2020. Primary-school enrollment temporarily surged in 2023 but has since declined significantly. The contraction is expected to spread upward through the education system, although the high-school-age population is not expected to peak until around 2029, as the cohorts born between 2008 and 2010 were relatively large and stable.
Source: Yahoo Taiwan, July 13, 2026
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