Population policies - One Child Policy - China
Population policies: a set of measure taken by a government to influence population change. Governments use
these policies to increase or decrease their the birth rate.
The one child policy was part of a birth control program designed to control the size of the rapidly growing
population in the People’s Republic of China.
Population (2023): 1.4 billion
• Anti-natalist policy
How it worked:
• The policy came into force on 18th September 1980.
• Exceptions included some rural families were allowed two children to help with labour and some religious people such as non- Han Chinese
didn’t have to follow the policy as well as families in which the first child had a disability.
Penalties for not following:
• Social child-raising fees: if a family had more children than they were allowed, they were fined in the year of that child’s birth. This hit poor
families hard as it could be equivalent up to 6 times their annual salary
• Intrauterine Devices (IUD): women could have these contraceptives surgically installed after having their first child. Millions of women were
encouraged and sometimes forced to of through sterilisation or have an abortion.
• Granny police: citizens who supported local families by guiding them to family planning and reported and breaking of the rules to government
officials. There were around 80 million of these volunteers
Incentives:
• From 1982 financial incentives of 5 Yuan a month was given to families with only one child
• One child families were praised and received a ‘one child honorary’ certificate.
• Other incentives included being prioritised for school placements,
• interest free loans and preferential housing
• Women who waited until the age of 25 to have their first child were
granted longer maternity leave.
The OCP was successful:
• The birth rate decreased by 28.4% from 2010-2020
• Natural increase decreased by 69.7% (2010-2020)
Impacts • Total fertility rate per woman decreased by 0.3 children
(2010-2020)
• Little emperors syndrome: a generation of spoiled children • Mean marriage age increased (2010-2020)
• Ageing population: there are fewer young people to pay • Mean age at birth of the first child increased from 23.6
taxes and support economic development. 18% of the (2006) to 26.3 (2016)
population are over 65 years old. • Sex ratio evens out (2010-2020)
• Male- Female ratio: 117:100 was due to a preference for • 400 million births averted
sons to help the family farm and pass down the family
name. There were 30’000’000 more men than women in
China The OCP was unsuccessful:
• 4-2-1 problem: one child may grow up and have to support
and care for their elderly parents and 4 grandparents. This • There are a lot more old people, dependency ratio increased
could cause a huge strain on their time and finances. from 36.9% in 2012 to 46.6 in 2022.
• Abortion: 70% of women with firstborn daughters had • There are still sex selective abortions
ultrasounds to check whether the second child would be a
boy, leading to an increase in abortions.
• China is facing a critical shortage of labourers caused by
30 years of restricting family size. In 2012 the working-age
population of China shrank for the first time. Pro- natal policies:
• Women’s education increased as they had smaller families
and more time to focus on themselves and their career • Easy passport and citizenship
• Bare branches: 70 million singles males as there aren’t • Free schooling until middle school
enough females • People who don’t have kids pay more tax
• Infanticide: the number of female babies killed in • Expensive and hard access to contraception
• Cheaper groceries for people with kids
orphanages increased as a result of the policy.
• Low consent age
• Low legal marriage age
• Court for abortion
, Carrying Capacity - the maximum population
Case Study - Overpopulation & Youthful size of the population that the environment can
population - The Gambia: sustain indefinitely, given food, habitat, water
and other necessities available in the
Overpopulated: When a country does not environment.
have enough resources to keep it’s people
at a reasonable standard of living
(people > resources) Overpopulation - Causes:
Population: 2.7 million (2023)
Birth rate: 36.78 (2022)
• High birth and fertility rates-> rapidly
Death rate: 7.1 (2022) growing population which makes it difficult
Natural increase: 29.7 (2022) for the government to provide recourses
Fertility rate: 4.5 children (2023) • Gambia is one of the lowest spenders on
Life expectancy: 64.1 (2023) healthcare. Roughly 177th in the world.
Infant mortality: 26.7 (2023) • Literacy rate for women is only 55.5% and a
Dependency ratio: 83 (2022) mother’s mean age at birth is 20.9 years.
Net migration: -1.188 (2023)
• Internet access in 2016 was 18.5%
Population density: 274 (2023)
Median age: 17.2 (2023) • Children help work in farms, over 83% of
the elderly have no pensions, so people
desire large families
Gambia is Africa’s smallest country located in Western Africa, • Only 9% of women use contraception
surrounded by Senegal. It is dominated by the Gambia river and
has a small coastline on the Atlantic Ocean.
Overpopulation - Solutions:
• The UNFPA provides access to free contraception
and family planning. This has averted over 15’000
unwanted pregnancies over a 2 year period
Overpopulation - Impacts: • UNICEF has supported clubs that advocate girls’
education and use community funds to cover
• Schools are overcrowded. The Average size class is 40 hidden costs of schooling
people, there is a lack of fully qualified teachers and • ‘Riders for health’ provides health-care to rural
resources (e.g. textbooks) African villages using motorcycle ambulances
• There is pressure on the economically active due to a • Primary education is now free and children
high dependency ratio: stress on health, education and accessing it increased from 80% in 2009 to 98%
employment services in 2019.
• 97’000 hectares of forest have been lost in the last • UNICEF has worked to provide clean drinking
decade. 75% of the population work in agriculture water in Gambian schools, as well as promoted the
• The government cannot build infrastructure quickly importance of hygiene and washing hands
enough, resulting in a rapid growth of slums (especially • WFP provides free daily meal to children in
in Banjul where its population has doubled since 1990) schools
• Due to bad healthcare, there is a high infant mortality
rate
• Mean years of schooling is 9. Parents cannot afford
secondary education (+uniforms, books, lunch…)
Youthful population: the percentage of a country’s population
under 15 (0-14) Populations in these age groups are classified
as dependents because they do not work and they rely on
others for the goods and services they consume.
A large youthful population can put economic pressure on a
country, particularly through the cost of providing education
Dependents > Economically active
Population policies: a set of measure taken by a government to influence population change. Governments use
these policies to increase or decrease their the birth rate.
The one child policy was part of a birth control program designed to control the size of the rapidly growing
population in the People’s Republic of China.
Population (2023): 1.4 billion
• Anti-natalist policy
How it worked:
• The policy came into force on 18th September 1980.
• Exceptions included some rural families were allowed two children to help with labour and some religious people such as non- Han Chinese
didn’t have to follow the policy as well as families in which the first child had a disability.
Penalties for not following:
• Social child-raising fees: if a family had more children than they were allowed, they were fined in the year of that child’s birth. This hit poor
families hard as it could be equivalent up to 6 times their annual salary
• Intrauterine Devices (IUD): women could have these contraceptives surgically installed after having their first child. Millions of women were
encouraged and sometimes forced to of through sterilisation or have an abortion.
• Granny police: citizens who supported local families by guiding them to family planning and reported and breaking of the rules to government
officials. There were around 80 million of these volunteers
Incentives:
• From 1982 financial incentives of 5 Yuan a month was given to families with only one child
• One child families were praised and received a ‘one child honorary’ certificate.
• Other incentives included being prioritised for school placements,
• interest free loans and preferential housing
• Women who waited until the age of 25 to have their first child were
granted longer maternity leave.
The OCP was successful:
• The birth rate decreased by 28.4% from 2010-2020
• Natural increase decreased by 69.7% (2010-2020)
Impacts • Total fertility rate per woman decreased by 0.3 children
(2010-2020)
• Little emperors syndrome: a generation of spoiled children • Mean marriage age increased (2010-2020)
• Ageing population: there are fewer young people to pay • Mean age at birth of the first child increased from 23.6
taxes and support economic development. 18% of the (2006) to 26.3 (2016)
population are over 65 years old. • Sex ratio evens out (2010-2020)
• Male- Female ratio: 117:100 was due to a preference for • 400 million births averted
sons to help the family farm and pass down the family
name. There were 30’000’000 more men than women in
China The OCP was unsuccessful:
• 4-2-1 problem: one child may grow up and have to support
and care for their elderly parents and 4 grandparents. This • There are a lot more old people, dependency ratio increased
could cause a huge strain on their time and finances. from 36.9% in 2012 to 46.6 in 2022.
• Abortion: 70% of women with firstborn daughters had • There are still sex selective abortions
ultrasounds to check whether the second child would be a
boy, leading to an increase in abortions.
• China is facing a critical shortage of labourers caused by
30 years of restricting family size. In 2012 the working-age
population of China shrank for the first time. Pro- natal policies:
• Women’s education increased as they had smaller families
and more time to focus on themselves and their career • Easy passport and citizenship
• Bare branches: 70 million singles males as there aren’t • Free schooling until middle school
enough females • People who don’t have kids pay more tax
• Infanticide: the number of female babies killed in • Expensive and hard access to contraception
• Cheaper groceries for people with kids
orphanages increased as a result of the policy.
• Low consent age
• Low legal marriage age
• Court for abortion
, Carrying Capacity - the maximum population
Case Study - Overpopulation & Youthful size of the population that the environment can
population - The Gambia: sustain indefinitely, given food, habitat, water
and other necessities available in the
Overpopulated: When a country does not environment.
have enough resources to keep it’s people
at a reasonable standard of living
(people > resources) Overpopulation - Causes:
Population: 2.7 million (2023)
Birth rate: 36.78 (2022)
• High birth and fertility rates-> rapidly
Death rate: 7.1 (2022) growing population which makes it difficult
Natural increase: 29.7 (2022) for the government to provide recourses
Fertility rate: 4.5 children (2023) • Gambia is one of the lowest spenders on
Life expectancy: 64.1 (2023) healthcare. Roughly 177th in the world.
Infant mortality: 26.7 (2023) • Literacy rate for women is only 55.5% and a
Dependency ratio: 83 (2022) mother’s mean age at birth is 20.9 years.
Net migration: -1.188 (2023)
• Internet access in 2016 was 18.5%
Population density: 274 (2023)
Median age: 17.2 (2023) • Children help work in farms, over 83% of
the elderly have no pensions, so people
desire large families
Gambia is Africa’s smallest country located in Western Africa, • Only 9% of women use contraception
surrounded by Senegal. It is dominated by the Gambia river and
has a small coastline on the Atlantic Ocean.
Overpopulation - Solutions:
• The UNFPA provides access to free contraception
and family planning. This has averted over 15’000
unwanted pregnancies over a 2 year period
Overpopulation - Impacts: • UNICEF has supported clubs that advocate girls’
education and use community funds to cover
• Schools are overcrowded. The Average size class is 40 hidden costs of schooling
people, there is a lack of fully qualified teachers and • ‘Riders for health’ provides health-care to rural
resources (e.g. textbooks) African villages using motorcycle ambulances
• There is pressure on the economically active due to a • Primary education is now free and children
high dependency ratio: stress on health, education and accessing it increased from 80% in 2009 to 98%
employment services in 2019.
• 97’000 hectares of forest have been lost in the last • UNICEF has worked to provide clean drinking
decade. 75% of the population work in agriculture water in Gambian schools, as well as promoted the
• The government cannot build infrastructure quickly importance of hygiene and washing hands
enough, resulting in a rapid growth of slums (especially • WFP provides free daily meal to children in
in Banjul where its population has doubled since 1990) schools
• Due to bad healthcare, there is a high infant mortality
rate
• Mean years of schooling is 9. Parents cannot afford
secondary education (+uniforms, books, lunch…)
Youthful population: the percentage of a country’s population
under 15 (0-14) Populations in these age groups are classified
as dependents because they do not work and they rely on
others for the goods and services they consume.
A large youthful population can put economic pressure on a
country, particularly through the cost of providing education
Dependents > Economically active
