What’s new: More than 30 Chinese cities have provided subsidies and incentives to encourage mothers to have more children. Experts, however, say it isn’t enough to stop the country’s falling birth rate.
Hefei, capital of eastern China’s Anhui province, is the latest to offer cash handouts to encourage childbirth as China struggles with a sharp demographic shift.
Authorities in Hefei announced a one-time subsidy of 2,000 yuan and 5,000 yuan ($280 to $700) to families bearing two and three children. Hefei’s incentives are modest compared with Chinese localities offering between 3,000 yuan and 60,000 yuan.
But experts said local policies are not enough to change China’s declining birth rate. They called for national level policies with broader supports toward childbearing and education.
The context: China’s fertility rate keeps on falling. According to the National Bureau of Statistics, in 2023, the country recorded 9.02 million births, a decrease of about 540,000 from 2022. This marks the seventh consecutive year of falling birth rates, with the population shrinking by two years in 2022 and 2023.
In 2021, China announced policy changes that allow each couple to have up to three children. Local authorities have since rolled out subsidies to encourage childbearing.
In Hefei, the city had 78,000 births in 2023, down from 85,700 in 2022. The city’s birth rate, the average annual number of births per 1,000 persons, declined from 8.97 in 2022 to 7.98 in 2023.
Contact reporter Han Wei (weihan@caixin.com)
