One-Child Policy Britannica Online

A long time ago, China had a rule where most families could only have one child. This was because there were so many people in China, and they wanted to make sure there was enough of everything for everyone. This rule started around the late 1970s and early 1980s.

Before this one-child rule, China tried to help people learn about family planning, but it wasn't until after a leader named Mao Zedong passed away that they really started to think about stopping the population from growing too fast. So, they first said families should try to have just one or two kids, but soon they said just one kid would be best. This rule wasn't the same everywhere at first, but then they made it a rule for the whole country.

Some families could have more than one child, like if their first child had special needs or if they were from certain groups of people. The rule was followed more in big cities than in the countryside. The government tried to help people follow this rule by giving them things they needed and sometimes by giving them trouble if they didn't follow the rule.

Because of this rule, fewer babies were born, and there started to be more boys than girls. This happened because some people really wanted to have boys. Also, as people got older, there weren't as many young people to help take care of them. Some families also had more kids but didn't tell the government, which made things hard for those kids.

China changed the rule in 2015, saying families could have two kids because they noticed there weren't enough young people being born. Later, in 2021, they said families could have three kids and promised to help them so they could have more children if they wanted. They did this to make sure there would be enough people to work and take care of the country in the future.