A child holds on while riding on the back of a tricycle, 08 May 2007 in Beijing. China faces a looming baby boom as newly-rich couples find they can afford to pay fines incurred from having more than one child, state media reported 07 May, as upward pressure on the birthrate also is coming from millions of Chinese in their 20s and 30s who are allowed two children under the policy because they themselves were single children. China, which adopted its one-child policy in 1979 to curb population growth, encourages late marriages and late childbearing and limits most urban couples to one child and most rural couples to two. AFP PHOTO/Frederic J. BROWN (Photo by FREDERIC J. BROWN / AFP)
叠别颈箩颈苍驳,听China 鈥� China鈥檚聽birthrate plummeted to a record low in 2020, highlighting a looming demographic crisis for Beijing caused by a rapidly ageing workforce, a slowing economy, and the weakest population growth in decades.
China聽relaxed its 鈥渙ne-child policy鈥� 鈥� one of the world鈥檚 strictest family planning regulations 鈥� in 2016, allowing couples to have two children. Earlier this year that was extended to three children.
But the changes have failed to result in the hoped-for baby boom, as the cost of living rises and women increasingly make their own family planning choices.
Last year,聽China聽recorded 8.52 births per 1,000 people according to the 2021 Statistical Yearbook released in the past week 鈥� the聽lowest聽figure聽since the yearbook data began in 1978.
It is a marked drop from the previous year鈥檚 10.41, and the聽lowest聽figure聽since Communist聽China聽was founded in 1949, according to聽the National Bureau of Statistics.
In addition, the yearbook showed the number of marriages registered in 2020 reached a 17-year low, with only 8.14 million couples tying the knot last year.
During the initial COVID-19 outbreak, parts of central China were placed under strict lockdown for months and across the country, many government offices were temporarily closed.
For most of last year, however,聽there were few formal restrictions on weddings proceeding as normal.
The number of divorces fell for the first time in at least 30 years, after a mandatory 30-day 鈥渃ooling-off period鈥� for divorcing couples was implemented at the beginning of 2020.
The yearbook data highlights many social trends troubling the Beijing leadership, which has pushed a socially conservative agenda for society with women as wives and mothers.
The results of a once-in-a-decade census announced in May showed that聽China鈥檚 population grew at its slowest rate since the 1960s.
Amid official efforts to boost birthrates, Beijing in September called for a reduction in terminations that are not 鈥渕edically necessary.鈥�
Some questions have also been raised about the reliability of China鈥檚 data.
Calculations by Bloomberg on Wednesday suggested that聽China聽undercounted the number of births between 2000 and 2010 by at least 11.6 million 鈥� according to discrepancies between the statistical yearbook, for which surveys are conducted annually, and the once-in-a-decade census.
Two hashtags about the marriage data trended on the Twitter-like Weibo social network this week, with more than 140 million views.
鈥淚 think raising a cat is hard, not to mention getting married and having kids,鈥� one netizen complained on the thread.
Others said the divorce cooling-off period had deterred people from rushing into marriage.