China's One Child Policy

China's One Child Policy

1. China has the worlds largest population of 1.3 billion which is 20% of the whole world's population

   • China has 160 cities with a population of over 1 million each

2. The policy

   • In 1982 the Chinese government feared that rapid population growth would lead to poverty, so they introduced the one child policy.
   • The government ordered that parents should only have one child and parents that had more than one child would have their wages reduced and would be denied of some social services.
   • There had been abuses of the system which allowed some families to have more than one child.
     • Parents in rural areas where allowed to have more than one child in order to help on the farm.
     • If one or both parents were disabled they were allowed to have more than one child in order t6o help care for them.
     • if you are an only child yourself you may have more than one child
     • all of these parents have to wait 5 years in between each child

3. Effects of the one child policy

   • The policy: dropped birth rates to 12.17 per 1000, dropped death rate to 6.9 per 1000,.
   • it created an ageing population.
     • rising prosperity cause life expectancy to increase to 74.5 years
   • population will still grow because some parents already had more than one child.
   • gender imbalance- most parents wanted a boy to work and to care for them when they are elderly.

4. How do population issues threaten China's economy

   • Malthuasian views- China's population is putting pressure on resources and the quality of the environment> the one child policy is good because it has reduced the population.