China officially ends one-child policy

In a bid to cope with an ageing population and a shrinking workforce, China has decided to relax it’s birth laws by officially ending its one-child policy, while also singing into law a bill allowing all married couples to have a second child.

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The Xinhua news agency reports that the change announced by the ruling Communist Party which will take effect from the 1st of January 2016 will now see married couples allowed to have a second child but the legislation maintains limits on additional births.

The one-child policy, instituted in the late 1970s, restricted most couples to only a single offspring and for years, authorities argued that it was a key contributor to China’s economic boom and had prevented 400 million births.

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