China has launched its first nationwide child subsidy programme, offering parents 3,600 yuan (about £375; $500) annually for each child under the age of three, in a bid to address the country’s falling birth rate.
The scheme, announced Monday, is expected to benefit around 20 million families and will be applied retroactively from the start of 2025. Parents with children born between 2022 and 2024 will also qualify for partial payments.
Eligible families can receive up to 10,800 yuan ($1,500) per child over three years, easing the financial burden of raising children in what studies rank as one of the world’s most expensive countries for child-rearing.
Despite scrapping its one-child policy nearly a decade ago, China’s population has been shrinking for three consecutive years. Official data shows 9.54 million babies were born in 2024, a slight increase from the previous year, but not enough to reverse the trend.
Local governments have been experimenting with incentives, such as Hohhot’s offer of up to 100,000 yuan for couples with three children and Shenyang’s 500-yuan monthly allowance for families with a third child under three.
The national policy comes amid Beijing’s broader efforts to address demographic challenges, including an ageing population and soaring child-rearing costs, averaging $75,700 to raise a child to age 17, according to the YuWa Population Research Institute.
Authorities have also urged local governments to roll out plans for free preschool education as part of a wider push to encourage families to have more children.
