Tuesday

July 25 Most births this year were parents’ second child

More than half of the births in China during the first five months of the year involved a second child — or even additional ones — more than a year after the secondchild policy was introduced in 2016, according to China’s health authority.

The number of births at Chinese hospitals between January and May was 7.4 million, an increase of 7.8 percent over the same period last year, according to the National Health and Family Planning Commission.

Of all births in the first five months, 57.7 percent were at least the second child of their parents, an increase of 8.5 percentage points over the same period last year, he said.

The total number of births at hospitals in China last year was about 18.5 million, the highest since 2000, according to the commission.