Monday, March 10, 2008

China Keeping One-Child Policy For At Least 10 More Years

The policy began in the 1979 has killed some 400,000,000 children - according to this CNN article. Forced sterilizations have also been reported, and as CNN notes there is a gender imbalance in how more boys are allowed to live then girls. Regardless of an aging populace (according to the article - within 7 years, 200 million adults will be over 60 years old), this law will remain in effect for years to come.

According to an older article from the BBC, the fertility rate (the number of children a woman is expected to have in life) in China which was once around 5 is now down to between 1.7 and 1.8 - well below 2.1 - the level necessary for keeping the population stable.

BBC article from Sept 07

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