One-Child Policy Britannica Online

The One-Child Policy was a rule made by the Chinese government in the late 1970s and early 1980s. It said that families could only have one child to slow down the country's fast-growing population. By 2015, the government said it would stop this policy, and starting in 2016, families could have two children.

When China became the People's Republic in 1949, the government started suggesting people use birth control, but it wasn't strict about it. After Mao Zedong died in 1976, China's new leaders, like Deng Xiaoping, saw the population was almost one billion and thought it was growing too fast. At first, they suggested families have no more than two kids, with one being better. By 1979, they wanted to make it a rule to have only one child per family. By 1980, they made this rule the same for the whole country.

The rule was supposed to apply to everyone, but there were some exceptions. For example, families from certain ethnic minority groups or those with a disabled first child could have more than one child. The policy was followed more in cities than in the countryside. The government encouraged people to follow this rule by offering things like money and better job chances, and sometimes punished those who didn't follow it.

Because of this policy, the number of babies born in China went down after 1980. However, because people were living longer and the death rate went down, the population kept growing, just slower.

The One-Child Policy caused some problems. More boys were born than girls because families often wanted their one child to be a boy. This led to fewer women for men to marry when they grew up. Also, with fewer children being born, there were fewer young people to take care of older people. Sometimes, families hid their extra children from the government, causing these children to have trouble getting education and jobs.

Over time, the government made some changes, like allowing some families to have more than one child. But in 2015, they decided to end the One-Child Policy, and from 2016, all families could have two children. However, many couples still chose to have only one child because of money concerns, the lack of childcare, and worries about jobs, especially for women.

In 2021, the government said families could have up to three children to help with problems like not enough young people working and too few babies being born. They also promised to make life easier for families so they would feel better about having more kids.