China's population to peak in 2029 under two-child policy: family planning official

The two-child policy would boost the economy and delay the peak in the mainland’s population by two years, a family planning official said on Sunday.

But he ruled out giving couples free rein over how many children they had, saying China still faced decades of overpopulation.

The population, which stood at 1.36 billion last year, would hit a high of 1.45 billion in 2029, said Wang Peian, vice-minister of the National Health and Family Planning Commission.

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Ninety million of the 140 million child-bearing age women who have been married and given birth to a child would now be allowed to have a second.

The government estimates the new policy will result in an extra 17 million babies born within the next five years – more than three million more each year than at present. In some of those years, there are expected to be more than 20 million births.

“New births will increase sharply within a short period and 76 per cent of the newly born second children will be in urban areas,” said Wang.

However, the increase as a percentage of the whole population was not significant, he said.