1. Policy Response to Low Fertility in China: Too Little, Too Late?
- Author:
- Wang Feng
- Publication Date:
- 04-2017
- Content Type:
- Commentary and Analysis
- Institution:
- East-West Center
- Abstract:
- In 1970, Chinese women were having an average of nearly six children each. Only nine years later, this gure had dropped to an average of 2.7 children per woman. This steep fertility decline was achieved before the Chinese government introduced the infamous one-child policy. Today, at 1.5 children per woman, the fertility rate in China is one of the lowest in the world. Such a low fertility level leads to extreme population aging— expansion of the proportion of the elderly in a population, with relatively few children to grow up and care for their aging parents and few workers to pay for social services or drive economic growth. China’s birth-control policies are now largely relaxed, but new programs are needed to provide healthcare and support for the growing elderly population and to encourage young people to have children. It will be increasingly di cult to fund such programs, however, as China’s unprecedented pace of economic growth inevitably slows down.
- Topic:
- Population, Health Care Policy, and Political and institutional effectiveness
- Political Geography:
- China