In a major break from the past, China on Monday eased family planning rules and allowed three children per couple. China had enforced a controversial one-child policy for 40 years and it was lifted in 2016 amid concerns over an aging workforce and economic stagnation. 

“To actively respond to the ageing of the population … a couple can have three children,” Xinhua state media said, citing a Monday meeting of China’s elite Politburo leadership committee hosted by President Xi Jinping.

Here are 5 things you should know about China’s family planning rules:

– China’s one-child policy was among the strictest family planning regulations worldwide

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– Currently, the fertility rate of China stands at 1.3%, which is below the level required to maintain a stable population

– Due to China’s one-child policy, the nation’s gender balance has also been skewed. As China traditionally prefers boy child, the practice has led to a generation of sex-selective abortions and abandoned baby girls

– China’s annual births plunged to 12 million, a record low in 2020, the National Bureau of Statistics revealed

– China’s census result published last month showed that the nation’s population in 2020 grew at its slowest rate since the 1960s, reaching 1.41 billion