Dealing with China's future population decline: a proposal for replacing low birth rates with sustainable rates.
Decreasing population levels due to declining birth rates are becoming a potentially serious social problem in developed and rapidly developing countries. China urgently needed to reduce birth rates so that its population would decline to a sustainable level, and the family planning policy designed to achieve this goal has largely succeeded. However, continuing to pursue this policy is leading to serious, unanticipated problems such as a shift in the country's population distribution towards the elderly and increasing difficulty supporting that elderly population. Social and political changes that promoted low birth rates and the lack of effective policies to encourage higher birth rates suggest that mitigating the consequences of the predicted population decline will depend on a revised approach based on achieving sustainable birth rates.
Cao
Shixiong
S
College of Soil and Water Conservation, Beijing Forestry University, Beijing, P. R. China. shixiongcao@126.com
Wang
Xiuqing
X
D001723:Birth Rate / Q000639:trends*; D002681:China; D005191:Family Characteristics; D016656:Family Planning Policy / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence* / Q000639:trends; D005260:Female; D005298:Fertility; D006291:Health Policy / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence* / Q000639:trends; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D011157:Population Dynamics; D012424:Rural Population / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D012744:Sex Ratio; D014505:Urban Population / Q000706:statistics & numerical data