the chinese government implemented the one child policy mandating that the vast majority of couples in the country could only have one child the phrase one child policy used often outside china can be a bit misleading the one child rule didn t apply to all exceptions were frequently made and local officials had discretion over how population limits were achieved 1 these collective efforts were nevertheless intended to alleviate the social economic and environmental problems associated with the country s rapidly growing population the rule was introduced in 1979 and phased out in 2015 2
understanding china s one child policythe one child policy refers to a set of laws implemented beginning in 1979 in response to explosive population growth that government officials feared would lead to a demographic disaster china has a long history of encouraging birth control and family planning in the 1950s when population growth started to outpace the food supply the government started promoting birth control however by the late 1970s china s population was quickly approaching 1 billion and the chinese government considered ways to curb population growth this effort began in 1979 with mixed results but was implemented more seriously and uniformly in 1980 as the government standardized the practice nationwide 3there were however exceptions for ethnic minorities for those whose firstborn was labeled as disabled and for rural families whose firstborn was not a boy the policy was most effective in urban areas since those in china s agrarian communities resisted it to a greater extent 4initially the one child policy was meant to be a temporary measure though in the end it may have prevented up to 400 million births 5 ultimately china ended its one child policy after it became apparent that it might have been too effective many chinese were heading into retirement and the nation s population had too few young people to provide for the older population s retirement and healthcare while sustaining continued economic growth 5the government mandated policy was formally ended oct 29 2015 after its rules had been slowly relaxed to allow more couples fitting certain criteria to have a second child now all couples are allowed to have two children 5enforcementthere were different methods of enforcement including incentives and sanctions that varied across china for those who complied there were financial incentives and preferential employment opportunities for those who violated the policy there were sanctions economic and otherwise at times the government employed more draconian measures including forced abortions and sterilization 1the one child policy was officially discontinued in 2015 the efficacy of the policy itself though has been challenged as it s typical that population growth generally slows as societies gain in income as happened in china during this time in china s case as the birthrate declined the death rate declined too and life expectancy increased 5one child policy implicationsthe one child policy had serious implications for china s demographic and economic future in the early 2020s china s fertility rate stands at 1 6 among the lowest in the world 6 the u s is at 1 7 china now has a considerable gender skew there are roughly 3 to 4 more males than females in the country with the implementation of the one child policy and the preference for male children china had a rise in the abortion of female fetuses the number of baby girls left in orphanages and even in infanticides of baby girls 7this continues to affect marriage and birthrates around the country fewer females means there were fewer women of childbearing age in china 8 the drop in birthrates meant fewer children which occurred as death rates dropped and longevity rates rose it is estimated that the share of adults ages 65 and older will have risen from just 12 to a projected 26 by 2050 9 thus older parents will be relying on their children to support them and have fewer children to do so this is compounded by the massive urbanization of china since 1980 with those living in urban areas increasing from 19 in 1980 to 60 in recent years 10 china is also facing a potential labor shortage and will have trouble supporting this aging population through its state services 11finally the policy led to the proliferation of undocumented non first born children their status as undocumented makes it impossible to leave china legally as they cannot register for a passport they have no access to public education oftentimes their parents were fined or removed from their jobs 5one child policy faqs