The population of China's capital, Beijing, fell for the first time in two decades in 2017, the official Xinhua news agency reported, citing official data.
The number of permanent residents reached 21.707 million last year, 22,000 fewer than the previous year, Xinhua said late on Thursday.
The number of people in the city's six urban districts fell 3 per cent from 2016 to 2017, the Xinhua report said, citing the city's People's Congress.
Authorities in Beijing have been making efforts to curb population growth as part of their efforts to ease traffic congestion, resource shortages and house price inflation.
Beijing's population has risen by two thirds since 1998, while energy consumption has more than doubled and the number of vehicles tripled. It said in 2016 it would take action to cap its population at 23 million by the end of the decade.
While big cities like Beijing and Shanghai have sought to control population growth, China as a whole is trying to take action to boost its birth rate, which fell in 2017 and is expected to decline further this year.
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