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Changes could balance gender ratio

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Demographics in three areas where the rural two-child policy has been tested indicate that allowing couples to have two children could result in an increased fertility rate and a more balanced gender ratio.

In addition to Yicheng in Shanxi province, trials have been done in Jiuquan, Gansu province; Chengde, Hebei province; and Enshi Tujia and Miao autonomous prefecture in Hubei province, with rural couples able to have a second child since the 1980s.

Despite the policy, the population growth rates in Chengde and Enshi were lower than national census figures between 2000 and 2010.

The number of residents in Chengde grew by 3.4 percent over that period, lower than the national growth rate of 5.8 percent.

In Enshi, the population decreased by 12 percent as a result of the outflow of migrant workers, a study by demographer Yi Fuxian showed.

The population of Jiuquan, which implemented the policy in 1984, grew faster than the national average, to 11.8 percent between 2000 and 2010, the city's sixth population census showed.

According to Yi's study, the two-child policy in those areas improved the fertility rate, which measures the average number of children a woman gives birth to in her lifetime.

"In 2000, the rate in Chengde was 1.36, higher than 1.29 for Hebei. In Enshi, the figure in 2000 was 1.36, higher than the 1.01 for Hubei," he said in Caixin Magazine.