China offering parents £375 per child in drive to boost birth rate
China is offering parents up to 3,600 yuan (£375) a year for each of their children under the age of three in a drive to boost birth rates.
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The government's first nationwide subsidy comes amid a plunging birth rate in the country, despite Beijing previously scrapping its controversial one-child policy nearly 10 years ago.
State media claims the new policy will help around 20 million families with the cost of raising children.
Multiple provinces across the country have piloted some version of payouts to encourage people to have more children amid its plummeting birth rate.
Last year, a UN Populations Prospects report revealed that its 1.4 billion population could shrink to 1.3 billion by 2050.
This has triggered alarm for the world's second largest economy, sparking fears of a demographic crisis.
In 2024, China recorded 9.54 million births as the population continued to decline, according to the National Bureau of Statistics.
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It is hoped that the scheme announced on Monday, can reverse the trend. It will offer parents up to 10,800 yuan for each child.
Families with children born between 2022 and 2024 are also able to apply for partial subsidies.
The move will be applied retroactively from the beginning of this year, according to local reports.
China’s population surged at a rapid pace during the mid-twentieth century, growing by nearly 50 percent between 1950 and 1970.
But the trend reversed as the population grew at such a pace that the government tried to stunt the expansion, launching the 'One Child' policy in the 1980s.
By the 1990s, China’s fertility rate plunged to 1.5 births per woman. In 2020, it dropped to a record low of 1.3 births per woman.
The government relaxed the one-child policy in 2013, but despite efforts to encourage families to have three children, the population continued to decline.
It risks an ageing population that threatens to damage its economy, which relies on a young and mobile workforce given it's a core manufacturing hub
According to a study by China-based YuWa Population Research Institute, raising a child to the age of 17 in China costs $75,700 on average.