China birth rate falls despite relaxation of one-child rule, as couples conceive later in life

THE number of births in China fell last year despite the world’s most populous country having relaxed its one-child policy.

State officials suggested that financial strains and the development of women’s careers were among pressures now forcing a generation of couples to postpone marriage and children until later in life. China had 17.23mil- lion births in 2017, compared with 17.86 million in the previous year, Ning Jizhe, the head of the National Bureau of Statistics, said on Thursday.

The nation of some 1.4billion people began to phase out its one-child policy in 2015 in response to concerns about an ageing population and shrinking workforce, prompting the number of births to rise the following year. New rules still limit the number of children couples can have to two. While last year marked a decline, an unnamed official from the National Health and Family Planning Commission said in a statement the number of births remained “at a relatively high level”.

The decrease was due to a declining population of women of child-bearing age and people’s decision to get married and have children later in life, the commission said. “Socioeconomic factors have more obviously influenced people’s willingness to give birth and childbearing behaviour.” The commission cited financial costs, lack of childcare services and women’s career development pressure as three reasons.

While overall births fell, the proportion of newborns born to parents who already had a first child rose to 51 per cent in 2017, five percentage points higher than 2016, the commission said. Since the late 1970s, strict measures restricted most couples to one child, with those who broke the rule facing fines and even forced abortions.

Around 53 per cent of one-child families have no desire for a second, according to a survey of 10,000 families with children under 15 by the All-china Women’s Federation.

China has an elderly population of around 240million people, a figure expected to rise to 400million by 2035.