Money worries delay child bearing

By Jane Chen | June 17, 2010, Thursday |

Online Edition

CHINESE people have delayed child bearing by an average 2.1 years, citing economic worries and housing conditions.

In big cities such as Shanghai and Beijing, people say they would not plan a pregnancy unless the couple's monthly income reached 8,000 yuan (US$1,170), according to the latest nationwide survey by Beijing-based Horizon Research Consultancy Group.

Fifty-six percent of respondents said they would still have only one child though they are allowed to have two children according to the country's population policy.

The survey covered 3,262 people aged above 18 years old in eight cities including Shanghai, Guangzhou, Wuhan, Harbin, Taiyuan, Xi'an and Kunming and eight towns in Guangdong, Liaoning, Zhejiang, Shandong, Heilongjiang, Shanxi, Hubei and Sichuan provinces.
The errer margin is 1.09 percent.

Up to 85 percent of respondents in rural areas put economic status as the top priority when considering when to have a child. In urban areas, the priority is replaced by housing, as 64 percent of respondents in cities and 59 percent in towns said they would first want a home of their own before having children.

People in second-tier provincial capital cities such as Wuhan, Harbin, Xi'an and Kunming hope to earn an average 5,169 yuan a month before having children.

Unmarried respondents expected they will have a child at an average age of 27.4, 2.1 years later than the married respondents who gave birth at an average 25.3 years old.

Population experts blamed rising living costs for the delay.

Tang Jun, secretary-general of Social Policy Research Center with Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said the cost to give birth to children and bring them up had increased substantially since 30 years ago, when most families had more than two children.

Giving birth to a child now costs an average of 5,000 yuan compared with 500 yuan in the 1980s.

A 2004 survey by Xu Anqi, a professor with Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences, indicated it would cost 250,000 yuan to bring up a child from birth to the age of 16. With education costs included, the cost would shoot to 480,000 yuan.

The Horizon survey indicated nearly 10 percent of respondents in Wuhan said they would have a childless family, while 9 percent in Beijing said they would not have children.

Nation

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Money worries delay child bearing

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