The fertility situation in Shandong is a barometer for China’s national child birth rate. However, the province is going through a significant change in its population structure.
Since the implementation of the two-child policy, Shandong Province, which was once called, “China’s most productive province for child birth,” has been losing its position in fertility willingness. Recently, several prefecture-level city health planning committees or municipal governments in Shandong province published the number of births for some months in 2018. The reporter noted that the number of births has declined in different degrees.
Take Qingdao as an example. According to data that the Qingdao Municipal Government released, the indications are that, in 2018, around 90,000 babies were born among the registered population of Qingdao, which is a significant decline. Figures show that the population born from January through November fell by 21.1 percent and the number of second child births fell by 29 percent. In Yantai, Liaocheng, Dezhou, and other large cities with a permanent population of more than 5 million, the number of newborns also declined in 2018.
Source: National Business Daily, January 9, 2019
http://www.nbd.com.cn/articles/2019-01-09/1289523.html