
Recently, the Ministry of public security data showed that, by the end of last year, 10 million 35 thousand newborn babies who had registered residence in 2020 had a significant decrease of 15% compared with 11 million 790 thousand in 2019.
According to the population data recently released by some cities, the birth rate in many places fell sharply last year, basically more than 10%, and even more than 30% in some places. The decline of China’s birth rate has become more and more serious.
In 2016, China fully liberalized the two-child policy, and the birth population and birth rate rebounded briefly that year. The birth population reached 17.86 million, an increase of 8% over 2015, but this was only a flash in the pan. Since 2017, China’s birth population has entered a downward trend again. In 2019, the birth population fell to 14.56 million, and the birth rate reached a new low since 1949.
An important reason for the decline in China’s fertility rate is that it can’t afford to have children. Many young people are already under great pressure to support themselves. Buying and renting houses have hollowed out most of their income. In the face of huge living expenses, many young people live by borrowing. In this state of life, having children is something many young people dare not think about. Even for some middle-class families with higher income, the cost of raising children is a very large expense. Raising children means that the quality of family life will decline significantly.
Raising children requires not only the cost of money, but also the support provided by the whole society for raising children is obviously not enough. Especially for many double working families, a very practical problem is, who will help take care of children before they can be sent to kindergarten? In many developed countries, child care institutions at the age of 0-3 are very common. Double working families can easily put their children in these institutions, and then both go to work. However, in China, there are almost no child care institutions at the age of 0-3. For many double working families, it is almost impossible to raise children independently without the help of their parents. Just this factor is enough to make many double working families give up the idea of childbirth.
In the final analysis, it costs a lot of money and time to have children, but the reality does not allow parents to do so. If they fail to repay the mortgage in time, it will affect their credit. Spending on kindergartens, going to college, and even buying a house when children get married are a huge burden on parents. That’s why Chinese people don’t want to have children.
最近,公安部数据显示,截止去年年底,2020年出生并已经进行户籍登记的新生儿共1003.5万,与2019年的1179万相比大幅下降15%。
从一些城市近期公布的人口数据来看,很多地方去年的人口出生率都大幅下降,下降幅度基本上都超过10%,部分地方甚至超过30%。中国人口出生率下降已经越来越严峻。
2016年,中国全面放开二孩政策,当年出生人口和出生率出现过短暂反弹,出生人口达到了1786万,比2015年增长了8%,但这只是昙花一现,从2017年开始,中国的出生人口再度进入下降趋势,2019年出生人口下降到1456万人,人口出生率创下1949年以来的新低。
中国生育率下降的重要原因还是生不起。很多年轻人养活自己就已经有非常大的压力,买房和租房已经掏空了绝大部分收入,在巨大的生活开支面前,很多年轻人都是靠借贷维持生活,在这样的生活状态下,生小孩是很多年轻人想都不敢想的事情。即使对有些收入较高的中产家庭,养育小孩的成本也是一笔非常大的开支,养育小孩,意味着家庭生活质量会出现明显下降。
养育小孩所需要的不仅是金钱成本,整个社会对于养育小孩提供的支持也明显不够。尤其对于很多双职工家庭而言,一个很现实的问题就是,在小孩能够送到幼儿园之前,谁来帮助照护小孩?在很多发达国家,0-3岁阶段的幼托机构非常普遍,双职工家庭可以很方便将小孩放在这些机构,然后两个人都去上班工作。但在中国,0-3岁阶段的幼托机构几乎为零,对很多双职工家庭,如果没有父母一辈的帮忙,几乎没有可能靠自己独立抚养小孩。仅仅是这个因素,就足以让很多双职工家庭放弃生育的想法。
归根到底,就是生孩子在花费巨大的金钱和时间作为代价,但是现实不允许父母这样做,如果没有及时还房贷,就会影响信用。幼儿园的开支,上大学的开支,甚至孩子结婚要买房,都是家长的巨大负担。这就是为什么中国人不愿意生孩子的原因。
