This Day, That Year: March 13

Editor's note: This year marks the 70th anniversary of the founding of New China.

On March 13, 1982, the State Council, China's Cabinet, deepened the family planning policy, which allowed every couple to have one child.

In September that year, the policy was officially implemented as one of China's basic policies to halt soaring population growth.

The country aimed to keep its population down to 1.2 billion by 2000. The number was more than 1 billion in 1982.

An item from Jan 26, 1983, in China Daily showed textile workers with one child taking part in a publicity event in Zibo, Shandong province, as part of the nationwide family planning campaign.

The family planning policy has prevented more than 400 million births nationwide since its implementation in the 1970s, according to the National Health Commission.

The policy became history in 2015, when authorities rolled out the latest family planning policy by encouraging families to have a second child, to help the country achieve a more balanced population structure and ease the shortage of labor.

But it did not lead to an immediate population growth.

A total of 15.23 million babies were born last year in China, about 2 million less than in 2017, according to the latest data released by the National Bureau of Statistics.

It marks the third consecutive year of a decrease since the country relaxed its family planning policy and fully implemented the universal second-child policy.

The birthrate also dropped from 1,243 to 1,094 per 100,000 of the population from 2017 to 2018.

The change indicated the downward demographic trend and aging population, analysts said.

The National Health Commission estimated that the second-child policy is expected to add more than 30 million people to China's working-age population by 2050.

Authorities began changing the family planning policy in 2013, allowing couples with either the husband or the wife being an only child to have a second child.