(Yicai Global) June 1 -- Couples living in the southeast and northeast of China are more likely to take advantage of the country’s new three-child policy as these areas have the highest birth rates in the country, experts say.

The Chinese government, which has one of the strictest family planning policies in the world, lifted the brakes on four decades of birth control yesterday and announced that couples can now have three children. The move comes a few weeks after the results of the 2020 national census were published, revealing the slowest population growth since the one-child policy was introduced and a rapidly ageing society.

The southeastern provinces of Guangdong, Fujian and Hainan are densely populated, with a high proportion of children aged under 14, due to the traditional culture of having large families. It is not uncommon for families in rural areas in these provinces to already have three children, said Peng Peng, executive president of the Guangdong Institutional Reform Research Association. Now they can do so without breaking any laws.

“Many people in my home village are willing to have three children,” said a man surnamed Bai based in Xiamen, Fujian province who already has two daughters. “The three-child policy is very good news for me,” he added.

The cost of raising children in rural areas is relatively low, Peng said. One more child does not add much pressure to a family with two children already. Many rural areas enjoy sound economic development and people are willing to have children.

“However, those living in medium and large-sized cities in these provinces are not so willing to have three children, given the high housing prices and economic pressures,” Peng said.

Residents in Shandong province are also more likely to have a third child, judging from how quickly they took advantage of the two-child policy that was introduced in 2016. That year, there were half a million more births in the northeastern province than in the previous year, bringing the total to 1.77 million newborns, of which 63.3 percent were the second child in the family.

Editor: Kim Taylor