China's One-Child Policy Abandonment Increases Birth To 18.46M
China's birth rate increased last year after its family planning policies were stopped last 2015 to allow more families to have a second child. The rate had increased to 11.5 percent last year compared to the previous years before the one-child policy was abandoned.
According to BBC, China welcomed 17.86 million new children in 2016. Within this year, there was an increase of 7. 9 percent. The figure was 1.31 million higher compared to the rate in 2015. The National Health and Family Planning Commission stated that there are 18.46 million births which have occurred in 2016.
Despite the decrease in the number of women who are capable of bearing a child at the right age, the birth rate in 2016 was still considered as the highest since 2000.
The planning commission also added that the government's changes in the one-child policy rule to a two-child policy rule were the reason for the increase in the birth rate last year. There is more than 45 percent of the children who were born last year with one or more older siblings.
"While the total number of women of childbearing age fell by five million, the number of births increased significantly, showing that the family planning policy adjustments were extremely timely and extremely efficient," NHFPC's Yang Wenzhuang said.
According to Daily Nation, the planning agency in China will allow every Chinese couple to have two babies to push the annual new births up to 20 million. Furthermore, the health authority in the country is also convinced that the increase in birth rate should be attributed to the scrapping of the notorious one-child policy.
Some parents have long been allowed to have more than one child. However, the financial cost of the second child has stopped some of them to pursue the option. According to the surveys, there around 53 percent of the one-child families have no desire to have a second child.