Guangdong Province, south China, retained its position as the country's most populous province and top fertility area in 2024, official data showed on Wednesday.

Guangdong, one of China's economic powerhouses, recorded 1.133 million newborns last year; the seventh consecutive year it has led the nation in births, according to a statistical communique jointly released by the Guangdong provincial bureau of statistics and the Guangdong survey office of the National Bureau of Statistics.

The province has maintained annual births above 1 million for five years running, underscoring its role as a demographic cornerstone amid China's nationwide population slowdown.

By the end of 2024, Guangdong's permanent resident population reached 127.8 million, an increase of 740,000. The province registered 660,000 deaths, resulting in an added 470,000 people through natural population growth in 2024.