Although the Population and Family Planning Law was formally implemented in 2005, the family planning has been practiced as a basic policy for 30 years.
On September 25, 1980,?the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee issued an open letter calling for CPC and Communist Youth League members to have only one child. The letter said, for families, more children would consume more money and food and hinder the improvement of living standards, and for the country, the population growth would affect the "accumulation of funds" for the nation's modernization drive.
In 1957, Ma Yinchu, President of Peking University and an well-known economist, published his article?"New Population Theory",?saying that large population and underdeveloped productivity constituted one of the major contradictions in China. So, controlling population size, enhancing population quality and implementing family planning became prerequisites for accelerating industrialization and improving people's daily life. [More] |
China's total population?reached 1.3 billion by January 6, 2005. The family planning policy has long been wrongly perceived as one-child policy. Its main contents are: Advocating delayed marriage and delayed child bearing, fewer and healthier births; and advocating one child for one couple. Some rural couples and ethnic minorities are allowed to give birth to a second child. [Population and Family Planning Law] |
Major Figures of Population and Family Planning (1994-2000) | ||||||||
Item |
Unit |
1994 |
1995 |
1996 |
1997 |
1998 |
1999 |
2000 |
Total Population |
10,000 |
119850 |
121121 |
122389 |
123626 |
124810 |
125909 |
126583 |
Birth Rate |
‰ |
17.70 |
17.12 |
16.98 |
16.57 |
16.03 |
15.23 |
|
Death Rate |
‰ |
6.49 |
6.57 |
6.56 |
6.51 |
6.50 |
6.46 |
|
Natural Growth Rate |
‰ |
11.21 |
10.55 |
10.42 |
10.06 |
9.53 |
8.77 |
|
Total Number of Birth |
10,000 |
2104 |
2063 |
2067 |
2038 |
1991 |
1909 |
|
Number of Women at Childbearing Ages |
100 Million |
3.26 |
3.30 |
3.33 |
3.37 |
3.40 |
3.45 |
3.48 |
Number of Married Women at Childbearing Ages |
100 Million |
2.3 |
2.37 |
2.39 |
2.43 |
2.45 |
2.49 |
2.51 |
Percentage of Late Marriage |
% |
58.5 |
58.9 |
59.36 |
59.31 |
60.12 |
60.12 |
58.99 |
Family Planning Acceptors |
Million |
20895 |
21412 |
21817 |
22101 |
22245 |
22559 |
22683 |
(Source: China Population and Development Research Center)
? Family planning policy to continue
• 30 years of family planning policy
• First 'only-child' couples face new pressures
• Tibet reports fastest population growth in China
? Family planning policy to remain
China population census 2010
China carries out a national population census every 10 years. According to the National Population and Family Planning Commission, the population on the Chinese mainland will reach 1.39 billion by the end of 2015.