Due to the decline in the population, China is encouraging citizens to have as many babies as they want, even if they are unmarried, and the city of Wenzhou is planning to offer new parents around $400 in subsidies per child.
Last month Chinese officials announced that 2022 marked the first drop in total population in six decades after 9.56 million people were born vs. 10.41 million who died.
Now, the country faces a population decline combined with a long-running rise in life expectancy, which could result in a wide-ranging demographic crisis for the world’s second-largest economy.
In order to counter the plummeting fertility rate, Chinese officials have loosened the country’s one-child policy, and offered incentives for families to reproduce – but nothing has worked.
In South China, the city of Wenzhou is planning to offer new parents around $400 in subsidies per child, while the northeastern city of Shenyang is offering up to $72 per month until a child is three years old.
In Shanghai and Shanxi, officials have increased the number of paid marriage leave days – time off granted to couples if they get married – from three days to up to 30 days, according to the People’s Daily Health.
According to data from Eurostat, due to the aging population, the European Union‘s dependency ratio will reach 57 by the year 2100, which will impact taxes in the future.
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