The state planner said on Friday that China would make the birth policy “more inclusive,” while trying to reduce the costs of having children, amid mounting concerns over the rapidly aging population, Reuters reports.
“We will implement the national strategy on addressing population aging, make our childbirth policy more inclusive, and strive to reduce the costs of child-bearing, rearing, and education,” said the National Development and Reform Commission in its annual report.
The number of newborns in China plummeted by 15 percent in 2020 from a year earlier, according to the Ministry of Public Security, with the onset of the novel coronavirus disrupting the economy and weighing on decisions to have a family.
In recent years, many Chinese couples have been reluctant to have children due to the rising cost of health care, education and housing. China’s decision in 2016 to abandon its decades-long one-child policy has not provided much impetus to the country’s birth rate.
