Chinese authorities have announced new measures to encourage families to have more children, with the country’s birth rate hitting its lowest ever amid expectations of a shrinking population by 2025.

In this regard, the Ministry of Health called on the central government and local governments to “increase spending on reproductive health and improve childcare services”, stressing that “local authorities should take effective measures to support the birth rate by providing subsidies, tax cuts and improving health insurance in addition to aid in education, housing and employment for families,” as the world’s most populous country faces a demographic crisis with an aging workforce, a slowing economy and population growth at its lowest level in decades. .

This, and it should be noted that although the Chinese authorities ended the one-child policy in 2016 and then allowed each couple to have up to three children last year, the birth rate has continued to decline over the past five years. since the birth rate in China fell last year to 7.52 births per thousand people.