The birth control policy will continue for the next 50 years, the State Family Planning Commission said yesterday.
Vice-Minister Zhang Weiqing said the Government was aiming for a target population of 1.6 billion by the middle of the next century, Xinhua reported.
The current population of 1.2 billion had exerted enormous pressure on economic development, the environment and natural resources.
Mr Zhang said since the one child policy was introduced in the 1970s, population growth had dropped from 0.26 per cent to 0.1 per cent, cutting the number of births by 300 million.
The commission, backed by the United Nations Population Fund, will hold activities over the next 10 days to celebrate today's World Population Day.
Meanwhile, more than 50 family planning experts and officials met in Shanghai to discuss the impact of population growth on the city's development.