(Yicai) March 30 -- Guangdong, China's top province for births, received about one-10th of the CNY90.4 billion (USD13.1 billion) that the central government made available for childcare subsidies last year.

Guangdong secured CNY9.1 billion (USD1.3 billion) in central government funds for childcare subsidies in 2025, as the southern province ranked first for births for the eighth year in a row, according to a document released by the finance ministry.

China introduced a national childcare subsidy policy last July to address the country’s declining fertility rate, providing monthly subsidies of CNY300 (USD43) per child under three years old. Ninety percent is borne by the central government, and the rest by local governments.

The country’s population began shrinking in 2022 for the first time in decades, and births have continued to fall despite the shift to a three-child policy the year before.

Guangdong welcomed one million newborns last year, down about 130,000 from 2024, while its total population increased by 790,000 to 128.6 million, making it the most-populated provincial-level region for the 19th straight year.

At CNY7.3 billion, central Henan province received the second-largest disbursement of childcare subsidies, followed by Sichuan and Shandong provinces with CNY6.8 billion and CNY5.6 billion, respectively.

Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region and the provinces of Guizhou, Hebei, Hunan, and Yunnan received between CNY4 billion and CNY5 billion each, while the provinces of Anhui, Jiangsu, Jiangxi, and Hubei got CNY3 billion to CNY4 billion. Other  provincial-level regions secured less than CNY3 billion each.

This year, the central government’s childcare subsidy budget was raised to CNY99.9 billion, CNY84.4 billion of which has already been allocated to local authorities, according to the finance ministry. The remaining funds will be distributed based on the actual number of applications.

Editors: Dou Shicong, Futura Costaglione