China is second most costly country to raise a child behind South Korea, report warns

Name: Chinese reluctant to have children as China reports first population fall in 61 years
Uploaded: 2023-04-30T12:00:12.000Z
Duration: 2 min 14 s
Description: Chinese reluctant to have children as China reports first population fall in 61 years

The cost of raising a child until the age of 18 in China is 6.9 times gross domestic product (GDP) per capita, twice the rate in Germany and three times that in France

The report said more support for families was needed to help improve the country’s flagging birth rate

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Chinese reluctant to have children as China reports first population fall in 61 years

Luna Sunin Beijing

Published: 8:00pm, 30 Apr 2023Updated: 9:39am, 2 May 2023

China is one of the most costly countries in the world to raise a child, according to a new report, which called for more support for families in the face of the country’s flagging birth rate.

The country is facing a looming demographic crisis as a result of its low birth rate – in part a legacy of the now-abandoned one-child policy – and India is poised to overtake it as the world’s most populous country this year.

The study by the YuWa Population Research Institute said the cost of raising a child until the age of 18 in China was 6.9 times its gross domestic product (GDP) per capita.

This was the second highest in the world, behind South Korea, where the cost is 7.79 times higher than its GDP per capita.

The high cost of childbearing is one of the most important factors affecting the willingness of families of childbearing age to bear children

YuWa Population Research Institute

It is also double the cost in Germany, where it is 3.64 times GDP per capita, and more than triple the rate in Australia and France, where it is 2.08 and 2.24 times respectively.