Projection of population structure in China using least squares support vector machine in conjunction with a Leslie matrix model

China is a populous country that is facing serious aging problems due to the single‐child birth policy. Debate is ongoing whether the liberalization of the single‐child policy to a two‐child policy can mitigate China's aging problems without unacceptably increasing the population. The purpose of this paper is to apply machine learning theory to the demographic field and project China's population structure under different fertility policies. The population data employed derive from the fifth and sixth national census records obtained in 2000 and 2010 in addition to the annals published by the China National Bureau of Statistics. Firstly, the sex ratio at birth is estimated according to the total fertility rate based on least squares regression of time series data. Secondly, the age‐specific fertility rates and age‐specific male/female mortality rates are projected by a least squares support vector machine (LS‐SVM) model, which then serve as the input to a Leslie matrix model. Finally, the male/female age‐specific population data projected by the Leslie matrix in a given year serve as the input parameters of the Leslie matrix for the following year, and the process is iterated in this manner until reaching the target year. The experimental results reveal that the proposed LS‐SVM‐Leslie model improves the projection accuracy relative to the conventional Leslie matrix model in terms of the percentage error and mean algebraic percentage error. The results indicate that the total fertility ratio should be controlled to around 2.0 to balance concerns associated with a large population with concerns associated with an aging population. Therefore, the two‐child birth policy should be fully instituted in China. However, the fertility desire of women tends to be low due to the high cost of living and the pressure associated with employment, particularly in the metropolitan areas. Thus additional policies should be implemented to encourage fertility.