China’s National Health and Family Planning Commission (NHFPC) made its first official appraisal of the new two-child policy on November 26, claiming it has conformed to the department’s preliminary anticipations.
China lifted its ban on second children on January 1, 2016 following warnings about a dropping birth rate and expanding aging population. The NHFPC estimated that the new policy will raise the number of newborns to 17.5 million in 2016.
It is reported that China’s total fertility rate (the average number of babies had by each woman of childbearing age) dropped to 1.05 in 2015, far lower than the global average and below even the rate of approximately 1.5 to 1.6 in developed countries, although experts questioned the veracity of the figure. Wang Pei’an, NHFPC’s deputy director, argued that it will still take time for the new two-child policy to bring up the birth rate. He predicted that the fertility rate during the period of the 13th Five-Year Plan (2016-2020) will rise to around 1.8 thanks to the new policy.
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