Two historic changes occurred in China in the late 1970s: the economic reform and the family planning policy, which have produced tremendous changes in China.

Known as the world's strictest family planning policy, it was introduced to control the fast expanding population in China from 1979. By then the country was considering the capacity of its land, water and other resources as its population increased from 500 million in 1950 to 1 billion in 1980.

Generally, the government advocates each couple have one child. in accordance with the family planning policy. However, couples in rural areas whose first child is a girl, can apply for permission to have a second child.If couples in urban areas are both the only child of their families, they are allowed to have a second child. The policies in ethnic minority areas are more flexible.

After 30 years of efforts, exponential population growth has been effectively controlled, and some 300 million births have been prevented. Under undeveloped economic circumstances and in a relatively short period of time,the country has realized a remarkably low birth rate.

However, the policy also has led to dramatic changes in population structure by hastening the ageing of society. To counteract this effect,population experts suggest that some areas, like Shanghai and six provinces where the natural population growth has been dropping for years,slightly modify the policy to increase the birth rate.