China to replace its 1-child policy with a 2-child policy

The Communist Party on Thursday officially ended its policy that limited most families to a single child, an acknowledgment that the 37-year population-control effort was holding back economic growth and had distorted China’s demographics in ways that could harm the party’s long-term hold on power.

As a result of the policy, China’s labor force is shrinking, and working people without siblings are struggling to care for their aging parents.

In addition, the policy has contributed to a surplus of men, partly because of a patriarchal tradition of favoring male children. That means there's an excess of young males with no marriage prospects — a formula for potential unrest.

But it’s unclear if the policy will have its intended effect, reports McClatchy.

Experts say China’s increasingly affluent population is having fewer children for the same reasons as its counterparts worldwide: Urban housing costs are expensive, women want to launch their careers before having children and some don’t want to have children at all.