More than 30,000 Beijing families ask for second child as China eases one-child policy
PUBLISHED : Monday, 12 January, 2015, 12:09pm
UPDATED : Monday, 12 January, 2015, 12:15pm
Wu Nan [email protected]
China's one-child policy, introduced in 1979, led to a low birth rate, which caused demographic problems during the past two decades. Photo: AFP
More than 30,000 families in China’s capital applied to have a second child last year after the mainland eased its one-child policy in 2013, a recent Beijing Health and Family Planning Commission report shows.
Municipal officials estimate the new relaxation will lead to about 270,700 new births over the next five years, or 54,200 per year.
Experts said the lower birth rate of second children was because most families still observed the one-child policy, The Beijing News reported.
However, other experts said that many new migrants to the capital, who were relatively young, would help to increase the birth rate.
The commission’s report shows 30,305 families in Beijing applied to have the second child by the end of last year, with 28,778 families being granted approval.
Its survey revealed that there had been between 2,000 and 3,000 new applications each month, with 97 per cent of them by couples aged 26 to 40.
Authorities started to relax the country’s one-child policy – introduced in 1979 to control the population – to allow couples in which one partner was an only child to be able to have the second child.
So far 29 of the mainland’s 31 provinces and regions have relaxed the policy – with only Tibet and Xinjiang yet to do so – since the National People’s Congress approved the change at the end of 2013.
The decision was because of the low birth rate in China, which had caused demographic problems during the past two decades, Xinhua said.
Under the relaxed policy, the National Health and Family Planning Commission estimates the total population will reach 1.38 billion by next year – below the 1.39 billion target set out in the 12th five-year plan.
