{"id":1513840,"date":"2024-02-22T06:02:46","date_gmt":"2024-02-22T06:02:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rfa.org\/english\/news\/china\/china-childbirth-cost-02222024010053.html"},"modified":"2024-02-22T06:02:46","modified_gmt":"2024-02-22T06:02:46","slug":"china-faces-high-childbirth-cost-as-population-shrinks-growth-slows","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/2024\/02\/22\/china-faces-high-childbirth-cost-as-population-shrinks-growth-slows\/","title":{"rendered":"China faces high childbirth cost as population shrinks, growth slows"},"content":{"rendered":"\n \n

China is one of the most expensive countries in the world to raise a child, with almost the lowest average desire by women to give birth due to the high cost entailed and the difficulty to balance family and work responsibilities, a Chinese think-tank has found.<\/span><\/p>\n

The cost of raising a child until he or she turns 18 is equivalent to 6.3 times China\u2019s GDP per capita, according to the 2024 childbirth cost report by Yuwa Population Research.This contrasts with 4.11 times in the United States, Japan\u2019s 4.26 times, as well as 2.91 times in Sweden.<\/span><\/p>\n

Such indicators are bad news for the world\u2019s second-largest economy facing a shrinking and aging population. Productivity and economic growth are sputtering as well, as Beijing grapples with overcoming structural problems exacerbated by a crisis in the real estate sector \u2013 traditionally a major growth driver \u2013 and mounting local government debts.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Chinese government has since 2021 allowed for three children in a major policy shift that began with replacing its controversial one-child policy in 2016 with a two-child limit. The change failed to lead to a sustained upsurge in births.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The report found that raising children led to a reduction in women's paid work hours, mainly before the child was four years old, unlike men, for whom fatherhood brings no change to their working lives.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

What\u2019s more, women lost a total of 2,106 hours of work caring for children aged 0 to 4 years. Based on an hourly wage of 30 yuan (US$4.17), the reduced income would be about 63,000 yuan.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Having children also means an overall 12-17% drop in women\u2019s wages. A mother with a child under six will see her weekly leisure time cut by 12.6 hours, while one with two children will experience a 14-hour reduction.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cChildbearing cost bears the most impact on a family\u2019s willingness to have a child,\u201d the report stated. At the national level, there is an \u201curgent need to introduce policies as soon as possible\u201d to reduce the cost of childbearing for families of childbearing age. It recommended nine measures, including cash and tax subsidies, and equal child rearing leave for men and women.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Together, these measures could increase the number of births by about 3 million, the report said.<\/span><\/p>\n

China recorded a second straight year of population decline in 2023 and the seventh consecutive year in drop of births, with the number of newborns less than half of 2016. During the same period, China\u2019s total fertility rate was only about 1.0, one of the lowest in the world.<\/span><\/p>\n

The report warns that if the current ultra-low fertility rate is not improved, China's population will rapidly decline. By 2050, it will reach 1.17 billion, and 479 million in 2100.<\/span><\/p>\n

Translated by RFA staff. Edited by Taejun Kang and Mike Firn.<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n \n \n


\r\nThis content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia<\/a> and was authored by By Kitty Wang for RFA Mandarin.
<\/p>\n

This post was originally published on Radio Free<\/a>. <\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A Chinese think tank finds raising a child costs more than in US, Japan.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":32949,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2242,3603,190,61064,43594,42620,17170,43849,1821,785,27149,74828,74840,27150],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1513840"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/32949"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1513840"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1513840\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1513841,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1513840\/revisions\/1513841"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1513840"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1513840"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1513840"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}