China's Disappearing Family

摘要

When, in 1979, China instituted its one-child policy, it forcibly lowered the child-rearing rate, and generated a ratio increase in the working-age population. This stringent family planning regulation ushered in an economic miracle: China leapt into position as the world's second-largest economy, its GDP per capita having grown from 270 USD in 1979 to its current rate of 7,595 USD. By the time the population hit 1.357 billion in 2013, though, China's demographic dividend had started to disappear, and the government prepared a second-child policy: if a husband and wife were each an only child and together had only one child, they could have a second; in rural areas and in ethnic minority regions, a second child would be allowed if the first was a girl.