(Yicai Global) Feb. 24 -- China's declining birth rate has started showing in kindergartens but not yet in universities.

The head of a private kindergarten said to Yicai Global that a junior class was preparing to accept 45 students for this spring, but only 32 signed up. The plan was to open two new nursery groups but only four babies were enrolled. The kindergarten has less than 140 kids, down from more than 240 in 2019, three years after the country implemented its two-child policy in January 2016.

Families have continued to have fewer kids despite widened policy support. Almost 9.6 million babies were born in China last year, marking the first reading below 10 million since 1950, according to official data. The birth rate was almost 6.8 per thousand and the number of new births equaled nearly 56 percent of that of 2016. In 2017, the addition of future taxpayers was still more than 17 million but the figure declined to 15.2 million in 2018.

The trend is also noticed in hospitals. A leading maternity hospital in central Hubei province has plenty of vacant beds and clients can book double or triple rooms any time, an obstetrical nurse said to Yicai Global.

The impact of the aging population is expected to be seen in primary schools in a few years and around a decade after that, in vocational education and colleges.

The influence of the dropping birth rate on different types of higher education institutions will vary greatly, according to Ding Changfa, associate professor at Xiamen University. High-quality universities will have no problems attracting students but junior colleges as well as private higher education providers will experience greater pressures. Many institutions will be closed but the process will take a long time, he predicted.

The decline is close to certain in the future as in 2021, institutions that provide vocational or university education had around 10 million students enrolled, or 400,000 more than the number of newborns last year.

Editors: Shi Yi, Emmi Laine, Xiao Yi