Family Planning Policy · Full chronicle and history

Data from the Ministry of Civil Affairs on November 4 shows that in the first three quarters of this year, 4.648 million couples registered for marriage nationwide, a year-on-year decrease of 504,000 couples, or 9.78%. The decline in the third quarter widened to 14.9%; divorce registrations increased slightly by 5,000 to 2.082 million.

On October 23, Chinese Premier Li Qiang presided over the State Council executive meeting, calling for accelerating the building of a fertility-friendly society, improving policies on marriage, childbirth, child-rearing and education, optimizing family support measures such as fiscal and tax, social security and housing policies, and striving to stabilize the scale of the newborn population.

On October 16, Zhuang Yan, director of the Shandong Provincial Department of Civil Affairs, stated at a press conference that efforts should be made to foster the concept that “individuals are the primary responsibility-bearers for elderly care.” After the related video circulated on Weibo, it drew sarcasm from netizens, with some posting photos of old family planning slogans reading “the government helps with elderly care.”

On October 12, a netizen in Dingzhou, Hebei posted a video showing a family-planning fine receipt kept at home from 20 years ago, covering multiple items such as fines for early marriage and early childbirth, the social maintenance fee for a second child, and the household registration fee, sparking heated discussion among netizens.

China's births in 2025 totaled only 7.92 million, a decrease of 1.62 million from 9.54 million in 2024, hitting the lowest level in decades.

According to a Wall Street Journal report on September 27, many places in China have set up heart-shaped balloons, floral arches and honeymoon coupons, transforming marriage registration offices into romantic check-in spots in the hope of attracting young people to marry and have children and boosting wedding-related tourism consumption.

In the first year of the nationwide marriage registration policy, Nanjing saw marriage registrations increase by more than 15% year on year, with over 22,000 couples from elsewhere coming to obtain their marriage certificates. The Wall Street Journal noted that this may only attract people who were already planning to marry, and does not necessarily resolve concerns about the economic burden of marriage and childbearing.

On September 14, Lei Haichao, Director of the National Health Commission, stated that in the face of negative population growth, the fundamentals of China's total population remain unchanged. He proposed actively promoting views on marriage and childbearing, resisting negative views on marriage and childbearing, and simultaneously promoting the integration of childcare and preschool education while reducing the costs of giving birth and raising children.

The 2026 Central No. 1 Document proposes continuing efforts to address high bride prices in rural areas.

On August 28, 2026, the official "Statistical Bulletin on the Development of China's Health Undertaking in 2025" was released, showing that the national number of births in 2025 fell to 7.92 million, with a sex ratio at birth of 111.5.

This year's Two Sessions proposed strengthening housing security for families with first marriages and first births, issuing childcare subsidies, promoting inclusive childcare services, and resolving issues around parental leave, in an attempt to encourage young people to marry and have children.

On March 27, a pro-natalist slogan appeared locally in Jiangsu: “Listen to the Party, have a third child, no overtime, two-day weekends, subsidies for third-child formula.”

On August 28, official data showed that China's annual birth population in 2025 was only 7.92 million, continuing the downward trend in births.

According to data from the China Childbearing Cost Report, excluding extra expenses such as school district housing, the cost of raising a child in China to age 18 or university graduation is extremely high, leading to a precipitous drop in China's birth rate.

The video notes that by 2024 China's fertility rate had nearly dropped to zero, and only then did the country begin to fully lift its birth restrictions.

The video points out that China did not begin to relax the three-child policy until 2021, and that before then, adjustments to the family planning policy lagged seriously behind.

In 2016, China fully lifted its two-child policy, but in 2017 the number of births fell instead of rising, coming in millions short of projections.

The video notes that the family planning policy, which should have been revised when Xi Jinping took office, was not relaxed to allow two children until 2015.

The fact that Zhang Yimou and Chen Ting had three children in violation of the birth policy was publicly exposed, after which the Binhu District Family Planning Bureau of Wuxi City collected more than 7.48 million yuan in social maintenance fees from them.

In 2013, Zhejiang lawyer Wu Youshui applied for information disclosure, revealing that China's total fines for exceeding birth quotas in 2012 amounted to about 30 billion yuan; scholars estimate that over more than 30 years of enforcing the one-child policy, total fines reached 1.5 to 2 trillion yuan, and local governments have never disclosed where the money went.

In 2004, demographers including Gu Baochang and Wang Feng jointly petitioned the central authorities, recommending that the one-child family planning policy be changed to a two-child policy. Gu Baochang was cold-shouldered, and Wang Feng was silenced.

In 1981, China established the National Family Planning Commission. Over the following 20-plus years it grew into a massive bureaucratic system, with full-time family planning public employees reaching 800,000 by 2000.

In 1978, after missile expert Song Jian went abroad for exchanges, he and Tian Xueyuan and others used mathematical models to calculate, claiming that if China did not control its population, it would reach 4.264 billion by 2080; Tian Xueyuan also proposed that China's population ceiling should be 650 million to 700 million, providing a basis for family planning.