Why did China’s birth rate remain low after families were allowed to have two children?

After the one-child policy ended in 2016, China’s birth rate did not experience a sustained increase. Several factors contributed to this trend:

• Economic Concerns: Many couples were hesitant to have a second child due to the high costs associated with raising another child.12
• Lack of Support: A significant barrier was the lack of available childcare services.1
• Career Impact: Especially for mothers, there were widespread concerns regarding how having additional children would negatively affect their professional careers.1
• Ingrained Social Norms: Decades of government messaging and strict policy enforcement successfully ingrained the viewpoint that having only one child was the preferable family size.1

These social and economic challenges persisted even as the government expanded the limit to two children in 2016 and subsequently to three children in 2021. In response to these demographic trends, the government has promised to enact supportive policies in areas such as finance, education, and employment to address the underlying reasons for low fertility rates.13