Report says that China is the second most costly country to raise a child

China has recently been named as the second most expensive country in the world to raise a child, according to a research report cited by the South China Morning Post. The report highlights the need for support for couples who wish to have children, as China’s birth rate has been declining, widely considered to be a result of the country’s now-abandoned One-Child Policy.

The study, conducted by the YuWa Population Research Institute, found that the cost of raising a child in China amounted to 6.9% of per capita Gross Domestic Product (GDP), ranking China behind South Korea in terms of the most expensive countries to raise children. In South Korea, the cost of raising a child up to the age of 18 was found to be 7.79 times the country’s per capita GDP, making it the most expensive country for parents.

In comparison, the cost of raising a child to adulthood in Germany was only 3.64 times per capita GDP, while in Australia and France, the figures were 2.08 and 2.24, respectively. This means that the cost of raising a child in China is more than double that of Germany and more than triple that of Australia and France.

The report cited by the SCMP states that ‘the high cost of childbearing is one of the most important factors affecting the willingness of families of childbearing age to bear children’, suggesting that policies need to be introduced to reduce the costs for families. The report suggests specific measures including cash and tax subsidies, house purchase subsidies, building more nurseries, providing gender-equal maternity leave, introducing foreign nannies, promoting flexible working styles, guaranteeing the reproductive rights of single women, allowing assisted reproductive technology, and reforming the college entrance examination and school system.

The report also highlights the rural-urban divide in China, with couples in large cities like Beijing and Shanghai needing to spend up to 1,026,000 yuan ($148,000) to raise a child from birth to the age of 17. By contrast, couples in Tibet would only have to spend 293,000 yuan ($42,000) to raise a child to adulthood.

According to the YuWa report, the average cost of raising a child from birth to 17 years of age in China is 485,000 yuan ($69,430), with the cost of raising a child to college graduation being approximately 627,000 yuan ($90,100). However, China’s National Bureau of Statistics shows that the average Chinese worker earns only 105,000 yuan ($15,130) per year.

The National Health and Family Planning Commission of China stated in 2017 that 77.4% of women of childbearing age said that they faced ‘heavy economic burdens’ and this was the main reason why they felt they should not have more children.