China’s New Plan to Encourage More Births: $500 a Year

Beijing plans to pay the amount per child until the age of 3, as falling birthrates reverberate through economy

By Liyan Qi of The WSJ. Excerpts:

"Local governments in China have tried mostly in vain to lift the country’s shrinking birthrate with perks, cash rewards and housing subsidies. Now, the central government is stepping in. 

Beijing plans to pay a basic national subsidy of 3,600 yuan (about $500) per child each year until the age of 3"

"China’s fertility rate—the number of children a woman has over her lifetime—is around one now, one of the world’s lowest."

"The number of newborns in China had plunged for six straight years before a slight, short-term rebound last year following Beijing’s end to Covid-19 restrictions. But only 6.1 million couples registered their marriages in 2024, a 21% fall from the previous year, the latest official data show, marking a record low since the government started releasing such statistics in 1986. 

The number of newborns will likely drop further this year, below nine million, demographers say, less than half the level of 2016."

"Skyrocketing costs of child rearing in China discourage couples from having children. 

So do health scares, such as a recent lead poisoning scandal at a private kindergarten in the western province of Gansu, where 233 children were found to have abnormal blood lead levels"

"Beijing’s expenditures on developing AI and other technologies it considers important for national security leaves less to spend on improving social welfare, [a reminder that life is full of tradeoffs] which in the long term should help lift births, she said." [Ilaria Mazzocco, senior fellow at the Washington-based think tank Center for Strategic and International Studies.]

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Would you and your significant other get married if the government paid you $14,000? What if they paid the two of you to have children? (2025)

 

Worldwide Efforts to Reverse the Baby Shortage Are Falling Flat: Subsidized minivans, no income taxes: Countries have rolled out a range of benefits to encourage bigger families, with no luck (2024) 

 

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