Pregnant women and their partners at a childbirth class. Photos: CFP and IC

The National Health Commission (NHC) announced on Wednesday during a press conference that it will continue to coordinate with relevant departments to closely integrate high-quality population development with higher living standards, and further optimize population policies.

Officials said that China will continue to promote the development of childcare services, and push for the addition of infant and toddler care service majors at secondary vocational schools, higher vocational colleges and undergraduate colleges. It will also promote the support of medical institutions for the development of complimentary childcare services.

The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) recently announced that China will conduct a sample survey on population changes in 2023, with household visits starting on Wednesday and ending on November 15. This sample survey will include 500,000 households, covering approximately 1.4 million people.

Regarding the current population situation in China, Sheng Laiyun, a deputy director of the NBS, stated that China's population structure has undergone profound changes due to economic and social development, such as a decline in birth rates and the rapid expansion of the elderly demographic. The overall population is also changing.

In 2022, China's population experienced a negative growth for the first time in recorded history. However, it should be emphasized that China still has a relatively large population, especially with nearly 900 million people still considered to be working-age, Sheng said. At the same time, the population's education level is improving, with the average years of education for the working-age population reaching 10.93 years. Therefore, although the population is declining, the improvement in the education of the population in China is growing faster, providing a good resource guarantee for high-quality economic development.

To solve the concerns and pressure of young people to have children and raise children, stabilizing housing prices and optimizing favorable education policies must be the future direction of population policy efforts, experts said.

In May, the first meeting of the 20th Central Committee for Financial and Economic Affairs proposed supporting China's modernization with high-quality population development, emphasizing the need to establish a sound policy system to support childbirth. 

The NHC has strengthened the coordination of departments and research addressing policy systems to support childbirth, focusing on solving difficulties and obstacles in the implementation of supporting measures, launching maternal and child health security projects, safeguarding the rights and interests of women and children when it comes to health, and strengthening the  quality of reproductive services. 

Relevant departments have coordinated and promoted supportive policies in education, taxation, housing, employment and medical insurance. Active exploration has been carried out in various regions, and some provinces, cities and counties have introduced policies such as childcare subsidies, housing subsidies, childcare institution operation subsidies and social security subsidies for employers.

To promote birth rates, local authorities in Changshan county, East China's Zhejiang Province, announced recently that the county will implement a policy by offering a one-time subsidy of 1,000 yuan ($137) for couples who register a marriage for the first time and in which the wife is under 25 years old.

In addition, local authorities in Changshan will also provide a range of subsidies for childbearing and education for couples with children, aiming to reduce the burden and  financial strain of childbearing, according to the statement.

The key is to reduce the rate of negative population growth, Huang Wenzheng, a demography expert and senior researcher at the Center for China and Globalization, told the Global Times. Efforts such as precisely adjusting the policy of housing purchases and renting homes, supporting qualified kindergartens to enroll children aged 2 to 3, building high-end think tanks on population issues, attaching importance to family tutoring and family traditions, and overthrowing extravagant and excessive wedding ceremonies are possible methods to alleviate the population problems to some extent, Huang noted.