The country is facing a demographic crisis, thanks to a declining birthrate and shrinking workforce, which is likely to significantly hamper its economic future, but most experts are skeptical boosting the child limit again will reverse the trends.
In a significant policy change aimed at countering the country’s declining birthrates, rapidly aging population, and shrinking workforce, China will now permit married couples to have up to three children. The shift, announced by the nation’s ruling Communist Party on Monday, comes less than six years after raising the nationwide limit to two children. But that policy change failed to boost China’s birthrate or stave off a looming demographic crisis. Now, in addition to raising the limit again, China’s government says it will offer “supporting measures,” possibly including maternity leave and greater workplace protections for women. The timing and specifics of the new policies remain unclear, however. Last year’s once-a-decade census in China revealed both that the country’s birthrate had fallen for the fourth straight-year — dropping 15 percent from 2019 to 2020 — and that the percentage of the population which was over the age of 60 had risen from 13.3 percent in 2010 to 18.7 percent in 2020, while the working population (those aged 15 to 59) dropped from roughly 70 percent to 63 percent. The decade had seen China’s slowest population growth since the 1950s, the census indicated. The fact that men outnumber women in the country, and that single mothers aren’t afforded the same support from the government as married couples, isn’t helping either. The decision to raise the child limit was made during a meeting of the Communist Party Politburo on Monday which was chaired by president Xi Jinping, according to the Xinhua state news agency. The Party also reiterated that it would gradually raise the retirement age (it has one of the world’s lowest retirement ages) and boost benefits for its seniors, though again, without getting into specifics.
