Why don’t Chinese people want to have children anymore? The number of newborns in China is expected to reach a record low in 2020, and Chinese media are discussing the reasons why people are reluctant to have children, mainly because they “can’t afford to have children” and there are not enough childcare facilities. The media also said that the relative income of those born after 1990 has dropped significantly compared to the previous generation, affecting the willingness to have children. According to the news, the fertility rate of Chinese people once exceeded 6, but now it is below 1.5.
According to a Central News Agency report today, the latest information from China’s Ministry of Public Security shows that a total of 10.035 million newborns will be born and have registered for household registration in 2020, a sharp drop of 15 percent compared to 11.79 million in 2019. Even during the famine caused by the Great Leap Forward, the lowest number of newborns was 11.87 million in 1961, according to public information from the National Bureau of Statistics. However, the number of newborns registered in the household registry is not exactly the same as the number of births in that year, mainly because some newborns did not declare their household registration, so there are differences in the number of statistics from different departments. In 2019, for example, the Ministry of Public Security’s information is 11.79 million, but the Bureau of Statistics is 14.65 million.
According to an article published by Sanlian Life Weekly recently, from the population information recently released by some cities, the birth rate in many places dropped sharply last year, with a decline of basically more than 10 percent, and in some places even more than 30 percent. The decline in China’s birth rate has become increasingly serious. The report said that the Chinese fertility rate was once over 6, but now it is below 1.5, “Why are Chinese people not willing to have children anymore?” The most important reason is that they can’t afford to have children. Buying and renting a Home empties out most of young people’s income, and even for middle-class families, raising children is a huge expense.
The report says that the relative income of people born in 1990 and 2000 is significantly lower compared to those born in the 1970s and 1980s. Relative income is the ratio of expected future income level to living expenses, the higher the ratio, the stronger the ability to raise children.
With the current economic slowdown in China, those born after the 1990s are not optimistic about their future income growth; however, their living conditions were relatively privileged when they were children, and it is difficult for them to move from extravagance to frugality, and with high housing prices and prices, their living expenses are much higher than those of previous generations. As this group becomes the main force of childbirth in China, the country’s fertility rate may be even less optimistic.
In addition, society as a whole is clearly not providing enough support for raising children, the Central News Agency said. One report noted that in China, “there are almost zero childcare facilities for the 0-3 year old stage,” and it is almost impossible for two-income families to raise children on their own without the help of one parent’s generation. In order to ease the pressure on pensions, authorities have begun to study the policy of delaying retirement, although the media have pointed out that this may in turn further reduce the fertility rate, as the vast majority of families need the help of the elderly to care for their children, and many young families may have no choice but to give up having children if the elderly delay retirement and lose the support of the elderly.
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