(Xinhua)
Updated: 2008-02-27 15:58

SHANGHAI -- East China's megacity Shanghai was expected to end a 15-year-long negative population growth (NPG) of the registered residents, local demographic experts said on Tuesday.

The prediction was based on the city's 2007 natural population growth rate of minus 0.01 percent. The rate was minus 0.12 percent in 2006.

The accelerating population growth was mainly attributed to the coming baby boom when more and more children born following the introduction of the national family planning policy have reached the marriageable age, said Xie Lingli, a senior Shanghai demographic expert.

If the spouses are both the single child in their families, they are allowed to have two babies, according to China's family planning policy, which was enacted in the late 1970s to limit families to one child and encourage late marriages and childbearing.

The policy was codified as the Population and Family Planning Law, which came into effect in 2002.

NPG, more frequently seen in developed rather than developing countries, occurs when the number of births is less than the number of deaths.

Shanghai, home to 18 million permanent residents, reported NPG for the first time in 1993.