question: how does the population of China keep growing when they have a one-child policy? If two people replace themselves with just one person, shouldn’t the population be shrinking?
comment: China no longer has this policy, it ended in 2015. Also certain parts were allowed two children.
passages: After the reform, China saw a short-lived boost in fertility rate for 2016. Chinese women gave birth to 17.9 million babies in 2016 (a record value in the 21st century), but the number of births declined by 3.5% to 17.2 million in 2017, and to 15.2 million in 2018.
   The Chinese government had expected the abolishing of the one-child rule would lead to an increase in births to about 21.9 million births in 2018. The actual number of births was 15.2 million - the lowest birth rate since 1961.
  
  Section::::Administration.
   In 2011, city couples who both came from one-child families were allowed to have a second child, while couples in rural areas could have a second if just one of them came from a one-child family. In 2013, the further revision of the Planned Birth Policy allowed couples in which either parent had no siblings to have two children. In 2015, China allowed all couples to have two children, abolishing its decades-long one-child policy for urban families.
   Chinese couples have also polled and stated that they would rather invest in one child opposed to two children. To add, another concern for couples would be the high costs of raising another child; China's childcare system needs to be furthered developed. The change in cultural norms appears to be having negative consequences and leads to fear of a large aging population with smaller younger generations; thus the lack of workforce to drive the economy.
  
  In May 2018, it was reported that the Chinese authorities were in the process of ending their population control policies.
  
  Section::::Hong Kong.
   Section::::Effects.:Twins.
  
  Since there are no penalties for multiple births, it is believed that an increasing number of couples are turning to fertility medicines to induce the conception of twins. According to a 2006 "China Daily" report, the number of twins born per year was estimated to have doubled.
  
  Section::::Effects.:Quality of life for women.
   The rationale for the abolition was summarized by former "Wall Street Journal" reporter Mei Fong: "The reason China is doing this right now is because they have too many men, too many old people, and too few young people. They have this huge crushing demographic crisis as a result of the one-child policy. And if people don't start having more children, they're going to have a vastly diminished workforce to support a huge aging population." China's ratio is about five working adults to one retiree; the huge retiree community must be supported, and that will dampen future growth, according to Fong.
   Section::::Effects.:Disparity in sex ratio at birth.
  
  The sex ratio of a newborn infant (between male and female births) in mainland China reached 117:100, and stabilized between 2000 and 2013, about 10% higher than the baseline, which ranges between 103:100 and 107:100. It had risen from 108:100 in 1981—at the boundary of the natural baseline—to 111:100 in 1990. According to a report by the National Population and Family Planning Commission, there will be 30million more men than women in 2020, potentially leading to social instability, and courtship-motivated emigration.
   Section::::Dynamics.:Recent Changes to the One-Child Policy.
  
  Enacted at the beginning of 2014, changes to the One-Child policy have the potential to greatly change the population demographics of China. Under the new regulations “couples will be allowed to have two children if one of the parents was an only child.” Prior to this development, only families where both of the parents were only children had the opportunity to have a second child.
  
  This change in policy may significantly reduce the number of heihaizi, due to the fact that parents will no longer need to hide a second child.
  
  Section::::See also.
   According to one group of scholars, one-child limits had little effect on population growth or the size of the total population. However, these scholars have been challenged. Their own counterfactual model of fertility decline without such restrictions implies that China averted more than 500 million births between 1970 and 2015, a number which may reach one billion by 2060 given all the lost descendants of births averted during the era of fertility restrictions, with one-child restrictions accounting for the great bulk of that reduction.
   The Chinese government, quoting Zhai Zhenwu, director of Renmin University's School of Sociology and Population in Beijing, estimates that 400million births were prevented by the one-child policy as of 2011, while some demographers challenge that number, putting the figure at perhaps half that level, according to CNN. Zhai clarified that the 400million estimate referred not just to the one-child policy, but includes births prevented by predecessor policies implemented one decade before, stating that "there are many different numbers out there but it doesn't change the basic fact that the policy prevented a really large number of births".
   Scholars and journalists from outside of China argue that simply dropping the one-child policy will help raise the number of girls born into China and thus raise the future fertility rate. Even though the two-child policy is now in act, couples are still choosing to remain a single-child household due to expensive childcare and women's increasing hesitance to leave their careers to raise a family.
  
  Section::::Consequences of the phenomenon.:Aging population effects.
   Given concerns about population growth, China implemented a two-child limit during the 1970s, and, in 1979, began to advocate for an even stricter limit of one child per family. Beginning in the mid 1980s, however, given the unpopularity of the strict limits, China began to allow some major exemptions, particularly in rural areas, resulting in what was actually a "1.5"-child policy from the mid-1980s to 2015 (ethnic minorities were also exempt from one child limits). The next major loosening of the policy was enacted in December 2013, allowing families to have two children if one parent is an only child. In 2016, the one-child policy was replaced in favor of a two-child policy. Data from the 2010 census implies that the total fertility rate may be around 1.4, although due to underreporting of births it may be closer to 1.5–1.6.
   Some parents may over-indulge their only child. The media referred to the indulged children in one-child families as "little emperors". Since the 1990s, some people have worried that this will result in a higher tendency toward poor social communication and cooperation skills amongst the new generation, as they have no siblings at home. No social studies have investigated the ratio of these so-called "over-indulged" children and to what extent they are indulged. With the first generation of children born under the policy (which initially became a requirement for most couples with first children born starting in 1979 and extending into the 1980s) reaching adulthood, such worries were reduced.
   In 2018, about two years after the new policy reform, China is facing new ramifications from the two-child policy. Since the revision of the one-child policy, 90 million women have become eligible to have a second child. According to "The Economist", the new two-child policy may have negative implications on gender roles, with new expectations from females to bear more children and to abandon their careers.
   Section::::Effects.:Education.
  
  According to a 2017 study in the Journal of Economic Perspectives, "existing studies indicate either a modest or minimal effect of the fertility change induced by the one-child policy on children education".
  
  Section::::Effects.:Adoption and abandonment.
   The abolition may not achieve a significant benefit, as the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation analysis indicated: "Repealing the one-child policy may not spur a huge baby boom, however, in part because fertility rates are believed to be declining even without the policy's enforcement. Previous easings of the one-child policy have spurred fewer births than expected, and many people among China's younger generations see smaller family sizes as ideal." The CNN reporter adds that China's new prosperity is also a factor in the declining birth rate, saying, "Couples naturally decide to have fewer children as they move from the fields into the cities, become more educated, and when women establish careers outside the home."
   As China's youngest generation (born under the one-child policy, which first became a requirement for most couples in 1979) came of age for formation of the next generation, a single child would be left with having to provide support for his or her two parents and four grandparents. In response to this issue, by 2009 all provinces allowed couples to have two children if both parents were only children themselves. After a policy change of the Chinese government in late 2013, most Chinese provinces further relaxed the policy in 2014 by allowing families to have two children if one of the parents is an only child.
   Demographers warn that fertility rates this low can hinder the development of a country and China has started to change their policies in order to increase their fertility rate and avoid any future adversaries. In 2015, the Chinese government decided to change the one-child policy and implemented a two-child policy. Some researchers argue that son preference along with the one-child policy are one of the many contributing factors to an imbalanced sex ratio that has left millions of unmarried men unable to marry and start a family.
   Effective from January 2016, the national birth planning policy became a universal two-child policy that allowed each couple to have two children.
  
  Section::::Background.
   In China, a One-child Policy was in effect until 2015 in order to address rapid population growth. Official birth records showed a rise in the level of male births since the policy was brought into law. This was attributed to a number of factors, including the illegal practice of sex-selective abortion and widespread under-reporting of female births.
  
  In patrilineal societies, sons will customarily inherit an estate before daughters.
   The fertility rate in China continued its fall from 2.8 births per woman in 1979 (already a sharp reduction from more than five births per woman in the early 1970s) to 1.5 by the mid 1990s. Some scholars claim that this decline is similar to that observed in other places that had no one-child restrictions, such as Thailand as well as Indian states of Kerala and Tamil Nadu, a claim designed to support the argument that China's fertility might have fallen to such levels anyway without draconian fertility restrictions. 
   China is the largest country by population in the world, being home to some 1.4 billion people. China is expected to witness a zero population growth rate by 2030. China's population growth has slowed since the beginning of this century. This was mostly the result of China's economic growth and increasing living standards which led to the decline. However, many demographers also credit China's family planning policy, which was formulated in the early 1970s, encourages late marriages, late childbearing, and the use of contraceptives, and since 1980 has limited most urban couples to one child and most rural couples to two children. According to government projections, the work-age population will then drop to 870 million. It was said, in 2009, that the Chinese government was hoping to see zero population growth in the future but, in November 2013, a relaxation of the one-child policy was announced amid unpopularity, reduced labour pool and support for an ageing population.
   Section::::Chinese one child policy.
   In 2016, following the abolition of the one-child policy, the Chinese government announced that IUD removals would now be paid for by the government.
  
  Section::::History.:Relaxation.
  
  In 2013, Deputy Director Wang Peian of the National Health and Family Planning Commission said that "China's population will not grow substantially in the short term". A survey by the commission found that only about half of eligible couples wish to have two children, mostly because of the cost of living impact of a second child.
   Now the household structures itself entirely around the one child. This shift from earlier structures that supported the culture of filial piety has caused much concern; "traditionally, a great number of children, particularly sons, was seen as proof of the family's standing and it guaranteed the continuity of ancestor-worshipping customs." The most salient issue stems from the worry about who will look after the elderly. Aside from a potentially radical shift in cultural norms concerning the treatment of the elderly, this new family structure poses a purely demographic problem: "the composition of the dependent population is shifting away from children toward elderly population."
  
presuppositions: China has a one-child policy. China has a one-child policy.
corrections: China does not have a one-child policy which ended in 2015. China no longer has a one-child policy, it ended in 2015.
raw_presuppositions: China has a one-child policy. China has a one-child policy.
raw_corrections: China does not have a one-child policy which ended in 2015. China no longer has a one-child policy, it ended in 2015.