A nurse holds a new born baby in a hospital in Zhengzhou, Henan Province on January 1, 2022. Photo: VCG

The household information of more than 8.8 million babies born in 2021 had been registered in China by the end of the year, according to the National Name Report released by the Ministry of Public Security on Monday, indicating a decreasing trend based on the data released during recent years.

The previous data showed that over 10 million babies were born and registered in 2020 and over 11 million in 2019.

The latest data showed that 4.68 million boys were born in 2021, accounting for 52 percent of the total newborns. Southwest China's Chongqing and Chengdu, South China's Guangzhou, and Beijing ranked the top four cities with the most newborns and household registrations in 2021.  

The decrease in the number of born babies has been trending on the web and the topic has gained over 52 million views on Chinese-twitter like Sina Weibo as of Monday evening. 

Some Chinese netizens claimed that more measures should be implemented, such as privileges to protect mothers, to encourage more births. 

According to the National Bureau of Statistics, the population of the Chinese mainland at the end of 2021 was 1.413 billion, a slight increase of 480,000 from the end of 2020.

The report also included information on the most common surnames and the most popular names used by boys and girls.