China to certify ‘birth-friendly’ cities and workplacesbirth-friendly’ cities and workplaces
China said it will certify cities and workplaces as “birth-friendly” as it tries to slow a long-running decline in births and support families.
The move, reported in Beijing on May 15, comes as policymakers search for ways to address a shrinking pool of women of childbearing age and the wider effects of a falling fertility rate on the economy and society.
- China once maintained a one-child policy for decades, and its population has only recently begun to decline.
- Beijing has used local pilot programs before when testing national social policy changes.
- Fertility policy debates in China now overlap with concerns about labor shortages and aging.
