The Baby Bust in China

The chinese government is trying to counter its baby bust. In may last year, the central government announced that all couples would be allowed to have up to three children and launched a nation wide drive to boost the number of affordable nursery care slots. But such incentives are no more likely to be successful in china than they have been elsewhere in east asia where similar plunges in fertility happened earlier. The root causes include increasing educational employment opportunities for women compared with the perceived costs of raising children. First, marriage, itself is out of fashion. According to a 20 21 survey by the communist youth league, forty four % of urban young women aged 18 to 26 say they don't plan to marry