China will now allow couples to have two children, putting an end to the "one-child policy" that's been in place since 1980.

NBC News reports the Communist Party's Central Committee came to the decision on Thursday. The changes are expected to be officially implemented by the country's parliament in March.

The drastic move was made due to concerns over a rapidly aging population in the face of a dwindling labor force.

According to The Washington Post, the Central Committee stated that the change was made in order to "promote balanced population growth, stick to the basic state policy of family planning and enhance population growth strategy."

The one-child policy was originally brought forth in order to slow the birthrate in a country with massive overpopulation troubles. Three decades later China still reigns as the most populated country with over 1.3 billion people, outranking the next most populous country, India, by 100 million.

The controversial policy was enforced through fines and threats of job loss. In extreme examples, forced abortion and sterilization was used. Bribery was also rampant, as couples paid off corrupt officials to turn a blind eye.

In 2013, China softened the rule, allowing for a second baby if the first-born was a girl or if one parent was an only child. Now the country is forced to pull back further on a policy that threatens to drastically weaken the world's No. 2 economy.

Experts say these changes are a step in the right direction, but are unlikely to lead to any drastic changes to the demographic.

"The longer-term problem for China is the rather skewed structure of its age pyramid following on from big reductions in births in the 1970s and 1980s," said Rod Wye of the Asia program at London's Chatham House think tank. "We are coming to a time when there is a worsening ratio of old people dependent on others and those still in work. However, that's not going to be fixed by this announcement because the demographic impact is likely to be small."

The United Nations predicts that by the 2030s, about a quarter of the Chinese population will be age 60 or older.

Demographic analyst Wang Feng of the University of California at Irvine believes the change is a good one, even if it comes a little too late.

"It's an event that we have been waiting for a generation, but it is one we have had to wait much too long for. It won't have any impact on the issue of the aging society, but it will change the character of many young families," Feng said.