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China's Shift to a Two-Child Policy Disappoints as Birthrate Drops

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The birthrate in China fell last year despite the country changing its one-child policy.
 
In 2015, the country began allowing couples to have two children in an effort to increase the size of the younger population who will eventually have to support their elders.
 
China's one-child policy was originally enforced in 1979, with fines and in some cases state-mandated abortions.
 
According to ABC News, studies have predicted the loosening of the one-child policy would bring only a relatively small increase in population growth.
 
In 2016, that proved true when the birthrate jumped 8 percent, with nearly half of the babies born to couples who already had a child. But the National Bureau of Statistics reported that wasn't the case again for 2017. Last year, there were 17.2 million births in the country, which is down from 17.9 million in 2016.
 
China has the world's largest population at almost 1.4 billion people, but the majority are now elderly. Scholars at Peking University and Johns Hopkins University have warned the low fertility rate will be China's biggest challenge in the near future with an expected labor shortage and declining economy.
 
The Country's State Council paper noted that population growth will continue to slow down because of a falling number of women of childbearing age and the rising death rate in the elderly population.
 
Families remain reluctant to have a second child for various reasons. Housewife Zeng Jialin says looking after aging parents is one reason not to have a second child.
 
"They helped us look after one child, but we would have to babysit the second one ourselves. Also, there would be so many things to take care of in terms of time management, economic conditions and pressure," Zeng said.
 
The government plans to adopt measures to encourage families to have more babies through "taxation, child raising, education, social security and housing."

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