China Now Allowing Up to 3 Children with New Policy

Florencia Lombardi
Jun 4, 2021
2 min read

After birth rates showed a great decline, China announced it will implement a three-child policy. In 2016, the one-child policy was replaced by a two-child limit, hoping that this would increase the number of births. However, a recent census proved the failure of this attempt, leading politicians to raise the number of babies allowed per couple.

For over 35 years, China enforced a one-child limit to stop the major growth of the population. Although this policy helped them reach that goal, it is creating problems for the country today.

China reported a concerning decrease in the labor force weeks ago. This decline alarmed economists and they warned it might affect the economic growth of the country. While the number of working-age people keeps decreasing, China’s population grows at its slowest rate in decades. Census data revealed that the population aged between 15 and 59 dropped to around 63% in 2020, which is 7 percentage points from a decade earlier.

The new policy aims to improve China’s demographic structure as the country struggles with an aging population. According to the state-run Xinhua News Agency, this change also hopes to maintain the “abundant human resources” that contribute to the country’s huge economy.

Since the original replacement failed, more changes will be introduced with this policy. The population was not persuaded into having more babies in 2016 because of the costs of raising children in Chinese cities. Therefore, the government plans to offer more accessible educational resources and lower its cost for families.

The question now is whether these changes will persuade the population to have more children or not. We still do not know if the modifications in birth restrictions will have the expected result, but it is the Chinese government's last hope.