January 25, 2008 -- According to a new report from the China Youth and Children Research Center, the number of young people in China declined by 6 percent since 2000. The total number of people in the 14 to 35 age bracket fell by 61 million between 2000 and 2005, the agency reported, and the proportion of that age group declined by 6 percentage points to 33.5 percent of the total population.

The survey was also supposed by the Population and Development Research Center of Renmin University.

"These figures indicate a visible decrease of Chinese young people in the total population in five years," Liu Junyan, deputy director of CYCRC, told the state-owned Xinhua newswire. "It also means that there has been an obvious trend of decline in births since the 1960's."