China will allow couples to have up to three children amid concerns that the number of workers in the world’s most populous country is declining too fast.
China allows couples to have up to three children
China is allowing couples to have up to three children amid concerns that the number of working people is declining.
Xinhua news agency reported that the change was approved during a Communist Party Politburo meeting led by Chinese President Xi Jinping.
The news comes in the wake of census data, which has declined over the past ten years from China’s labor pools, while the number of people over 65 increased, adding pressure to the economy and society.
“The birth rate policy will be further improved. A policy allowing up to three children will be introduced with supportive measures in a couple, which will improve China’s demographic structure.”
Since 1980, the Communist Party has imposed the birth limit to curb population growth, and the population decline is partly due to the controversial one-child policy imposed in 1979.
Couples who did not comply with its family planning laws faced fines and lost their jobs, mothers had to cancel their babies or be sterilized in some cases.
Restrictions were relaxed in 2015. Families were allowed to have up to two children per family. Following calls to change the one-child policy amid a slowdown in economic growth.
However, the liberalization of the guidelines failed to revive the country’s declining birth rate.
A census revealed that in 2020 mothers gave birth to 12 million babies, down from 14.65 million in 2019. This represents a year-on-year decline of 18%.
