{"id":7866,"date":"2021-06-01T07:30:25","date_gmt":"2021-06-01T07:30:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/focus.cbbc.org\/?p=7866"},"modified":"2025-04-23T09:53:10","modified_gmt":"2025-04-23T09:53:10","slug":"china-to-allow-couples-to-have-three-children","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/focus.cbbc.org\/china-to-allow-couples-to-have-three-children\/","title":{"rendered":"China to allow couples to have three children"},"content":{"rendered":"

The new decision marks a significant shift in China\u2019s family planning policy, but it remains to be seen whether young couples will take advantage of it<\/span><\/h2>\n

At a meeting of the Politburo<\/a> of the CPC Central Committee on Monday, 31 May 2020, it was announced that China will now allow couples to have a third child. This follows an earlier move in 2016 that allowed couples to have two children. Xinhua reported<\/a> that the new policy aims to \u201chelp improve China\u2019s population structure, actively respond to the ageing population, and preserve the country\u2019s human resource advantages\u2026\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\"launchpad<\/a><\/p>\n

The policy change comes soon after the results of the 2020 census<\/a>, released on 11 May 2021, showed China\u2019s population growing at the slowest rate in decades and a fertility rate that had dropped to just 1.3 children per woman, far below the replacement rate of 2.1 needed for stable population growth. China is also ageing rapidly, with the number of people aged 65 and over increasing by 4.6% from the 2010 census to 13.5% in 2020.<\/span><\/p>\n

The introduction of the \u201cthree-child policy\u201d marks a remarkably quick response to these challenges, however, it remains to be seen whether couples in China will decide to have bigger families. As the census shows, the previous relaxation of the one-child policy in 2016 failed to increase the country\u2019s declining birthrate. After decades of family planning policies, there has been a cultural shift towards acceptance of having fewer children, and many young people are put off by the prohibitive costs of raising a child in urban China.<\/span><\/p>\n