A prominent Chinese think tank said that China is one of the most expensive countries in the world to raise children, relatively more expensive than the United States and Japan.
The average cost of raising a child up to the age of 18 in China is 538,000 yuan (£59,275), equivalent to 6.3 of GDP per capita, according to a report released on Wednesday by the Beijing-based Youhe Population Research Institute. That's more than double that. In contrast, in the US he is 4.11x and in Japan he is 4.26x.
For children growing up in Chinese cities, the average cost rises to 667,000 yuan (£73,488).
Researchers found that in Australia, the cost of raising a child is 2.08 times the average GDP per capita. China has the world's lowest birth rate, second only to South Korea.
The report also noted the opportunity costs associated with having children, borne primarily by mothers. Between 2010 and 2018, the amount of weekly time parents spend helping their elementary-age children with homework increased from 3.67 hours to 5.88 hours.
As a result of raising children, mothers tend to reduce their paid working hours and leisure time. The father only experiences a loss of leisure time.
“Due to the high costs of childbirth and the difficulty women have in balancing family and work, the average Chinese citizen's desire to become pregnant is…almost the lowest in the world,” the researchers said. concluded. “Pregnancy desire” refers to the ideal number of children that people think of, but according to some studies, in China this number is less than two.
The study was led by Liang Jianzhang, a prominent businessman and professor of economics at Peking University.
China's population fell for the second year in a row last year, exacerbating government concerns about supporting an aging population with fewer workers.
The number of births in 2023 will be just over 9 million, about half the number in 2016.
Women are increasingly delaying or refusing motherhood because it negatively impacts their careers and finances. In 2017, the government abandoned its decades-old one-child policy and now encourages women to have up to three children. Some states have lifted limits on the number of children a household can enroll.
Ligia Zhang, an author who is writing a book about how Chinese women think about marriage and motherhood, says the high cost of education and housing makes raising children financially difficult. Told. She said, “Many of the women I interviewed said they couldn't afford to have two or three children. Some can manage one. Others don't even want to go through the trouble. .”
Zhang added, “Another equally important factor is changing attitudes. Many educated women living in urban areas see motherhood as a necessary progression in life and a necessary element for happiness.'' I no longer think so.”
Several local governments in China have introduced measures ranging from cash subsidies for extra children to discounts on in vitro fertilization to boost birth rates. Superstitious policymakers are hoping that the Lunar Year of the Dragon, which began on February 10, will lead to an increase in births as parents plan to give birth to auspicious dragon babies. There is.
But so far, government incentives have done little to stem the stubborn decline in birthrates.
Yuwa's report concludes: “A decline in the birth rate will have serious implications for China's economic growth potential, the vitality of innovation, the happiness index of its people, and even the rejuvenation of the nation…The root cause of why China's birth rate is almost the lowest in the world. The reason is that the birth rate is almost the lowest in the world, and the cost of birth is the highest in the world. ”
