Hongkong:

China is one of the most expensive countries in the world to raise a child relative to per capita gross domestic product, a prominent Chinese think tank said on Wednesday, while detailing the time and opportunity costs for women who choose to have children in the country.

A Beijing report said that the cost of raising a child to the age of 18 relative to per capita GDP is about 6.3 times, compared with 2.08 times in Australia, 2.24 times in France, 4.11 times in the United States and 4.26 times in Japan. Located at Yuwa Population Research Institute.

Raising children also causes women’s paid work hours and wage levels to decrease, while men’s livelihoods remain essentially the same.

The report, co-authored by Liang Jianzhang, founder of online travel website Ctrip, said that “because China’s current social environment is not friendly to women’s fertility, the time cost and opportunity cost for women to have children are too high.” Founder of YuWa Institute.

“Due to the high cost of childbearing and the difficulty for women to balance family and work, the average desire of Chinese people to have children is almost the lowest in the world.”

The report comes after China’s population fell for the second consecutive year in 2023, with the number of births falling to about half of 2016.

More and more women are choosing not to have children due to high childcare costs, reluctance to get married or putting their careers on hold, while gender discrimination remains widespread.

According to the report, based on an hourly wage of 30 yuan per hour, women will generally lose 2,106 hours of work when caring for children aged 0 to 4 years old, and are expected to face a wage loss of 63,000 yuan ($8,700) during this period.

Having children will also result in a 12% to 17% drop in women’s wages, the report said. A mother with a child aged 0-6 will see her leisure time reduced by 12.6 hours, and a mother with two children will see her leisure time reduced by 14 hours. Yu Wa said there is an “urgent need” at the national level to introduce policies to reduce the cost of childbirth as soon as possible, such as cash and tax subsidies, improving childcare services, equal maternity and paternity leave, hiring foreign nannies, allowing flexible working and giving benefits to single and married women. Same reproductive rights.

Together, these measures could increase the number of births to about 3 million, the report said.

In 2023, China’s total fertility rate will be only about 1.0, one of the lowest countries in the world.

The report states that if the current ultra-low fertility rate is not improved, China’s population will decline and age rapidly, which will have a serious negative impact on innovation and overall national strength.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)