The Chinese One-Child Policy was a drastic population control measure enforced by the Chinese government during 1979-2015. It served to limit the family size of each couple to one child. The Chinese government was attempting to check the population growth of their domestic population as its population had grown to an unmanageable 1.4 billion people.

The policy was enforced through a combination of incentives and sanctions. Couples were incentivized to only have one child through various policies such as preferential tax deductions, longer parental leave and priority in enrolling in preschools for those who opted for only one child. Sanctions on the other side ranged from loss of work wage and revocation of promotion to fines and forced abortions for pregnant women.

The One-Child policy resulted in several consequential effects that have changed the way China functions today, which include a sharp decline in fertility rate, poor sex ratio and an aging population.

The policy proved to be effective in drastically reducing the average total fertility rate of Chinese women, from more than 5 pregnancies per woman to only 1.5 pregnancies, between the period of 1979-2015. Most of these births were due to the fact that many couples preferred to have their child as a son, causing a severe gender imbalance. According to a report by U.S. Census Bureau in 2018, approximately 1.07 male children were born to each female child, which is much higher than the usual male-female ratio of 1:1.

Additionally, the policy has led to a labor shortage, as parents now rely on their one child to look after them in their old age. This, in turn, leads to drastic aging in China’s population, as the ratio of aged population to working-age population increases.

While it is unclear whether the One-Child policy could have been successful in the long term, it did serve to effectively reduce China’s population growth and help the government gain better control over its resources. Estimates place the number of births that have been prevented in China through this policy over four hundred million. This policy also served to bring focus to the issue of sexual discrimination, as the consequences of the policy has forced people to be more aware of deep-rooted gender inequality present in the country.

Ultimately, the end of the policy marked an important milestone in the development of China’s population policies. The government has since broadened its reproductive health policies to include two-child policy and access to better contraceptive methods.