China’s stalled baby boom

According to government statistics, 21,000 couples in Beijing applied for a second child authorization after the partial reform of the Chinese one-child policy in February 2014. The city’s health and family planning commission had however predicted up to 50,000 new births each year in the capital. The resources allocated by the municipal government for the development of services linked to newborns and infant care therefore seem to be exceeding the needs and call for re-evaluation.

While demography experts have been repeatedly calling for a softening of the one child policy due to concerns over accelerated ageing of the Chinese population and all its subsequent problems, the expected baby-boom is still not occurring following this first set of reforms.