One-Child Policy Britannica Online

China had a rule that families should only have one kid. This rule started a long time ago because there were so many people in China. The leaders thought having fewer babies would help the country. But in 2016, they said it was okay to have two kids instead. Later, they said families could have three kids and promised to help them more.

A long time ago, China tried to help people plan their families. But when the country had almost one billion people, the leaders said, "Let's only have one kid in each family." This helped slow down the number of people being born.

But this one-kid rule made some problems. There were more boys than girls because families wanted boys more. And when these kids grew up, there weren't enough girls to marry. Also, there were more old people and not enough young ones to take care of them. Some kids weren't even counted because their families had more than one child.

In 2015, China said it was okay to have two kids. And in 2021, they said three kids are okay. They also said they would help families more so they could have more kids if they wanted. This was to help have more young people and fewer problems with too many old people and not enough workers.