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Carol Yang

China has launched a national campaign to certify cities and workplaces as “birth-friendly” to help arrest a historic demographic decline, as a top policy adviser called for even more substantial shifts, including decoupling childbirth from marriage.
In documents released on Thursday, the National Health Commission urged city governments to reduce the financial burdens of childbirth, child-rearing and education on families, and called on employers to support their employees in balancing work and family responsibilities.
The campaign, which aims to name 40 cities and 200 workplaces as being supportive of childbirth every three years, is the latest in a series of measures – including cash subsidies for newborns – as the government doubles down on its pledge to build a birth-friendly society in the face of a declining birth rate.
The urgency of such reforms was echoed by Ma Jiantang, a senior economist and national political adviser, in a lecture at Tsinghua University in Beijing on Thursday night.
Discussing the nation’s demographic challenges, Ma emphasised the need to act while a critical “window of opportunity” remained open.
“We must seize the period where the number of women at childbearing age is still over 200 million and strive for a recovery in the total fertility rate,” Ma said, basing the number of females aged from 15 to 49 on research by Southwestern University of Finance and Economics and Tsinghua University that was released in January last year.
While Beijing has not released official fertility rate figures recently, United Nations data suggests the average number of children born to each Chinese woman fell to just 1.0 in 2024.
The replacement level required to maintain a stable population is 2.1.
An increasing number of women may be unwilling to marry but still wish to have children
Ma Jiantang, national political adviser
The university research forecast that China’s population of women of childbearing age was expected to remain between 209 million and 305 million from 2025 to 2035, providing a narrow time frame for effective intervention.
Ma argued for legislative changes, suggesting a “birth-promotion law” should replace the existing Population and Family Planning Law.
A key pillar of his proposal is decoupling birth from marriage – a significant shift in a traditionally conservative society.
He urged the government to allow the household registration of children born out of wedlock and to respect the birthing rights of all women.
“An increasing number of women may be unwilling to marry but still wish to have children,” Ma said, adding that while some regions had begun to relax restrictions, the practice had not been adopted nationwide.
Ma also highlighted the systemic barriers women faced in the workforce and called for multichannel funding to help employers cover the costs of maintaining positions for women on maternity leave.
The National Bureau of Statistics reported that the number of babies born in China last year fell to 7.92 million, the lowest number in records dating back to 1949. The country’s total population shrank by 3.39 million.


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Economy

China Economy

Campaign aims to name 40 cities and 200 workplaces as being supportive of childbirth every three years


Campaign aims to name 40 cities and 200 workplaces as being supportive of childbirth every three years.


China's population

China economy

China

Amid falling fertility rate, China to certify ‘birth-friendly’ cities and workplaces

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}Campaign aims to name 40 cities and 200 workplaces as being supportive of childbirth every three years

Campaign aims to name 40 cities and 200 workplaces as being supportive of childbirth every three years