Second and third children comprise more than half the births in China
By Wang Xiaoyu | chinadaily.com.cn | Updated: 2023-10-12 16:51
Babies born as the second child in a family accounted for about 39 percent of newborns in China last year, with those born as a third child accounting for 15 percent, the National Health Commission on Thursday.
In a statistical communique, it added that the sex ratio at birth last year was 111.1 boys for every 100 girls.
China's population dropped by 850,000 last year — the first decline in over six decades — the National Bureau of Statistics said earlier this year.
A continuing decline in the number of newborns over the years — down to 9.56 million last year — has been seen as a major driver of that historic fall.
China allowed all couples to have up to two children in 2016 and up to three children in May 2021.
The communique added that the number of nursery care facilities in China reached nearly 76,000 last year, with the country having 2.57 nursery care slots per 1,000 people.
