Couples in Shanghai are now urged to have more than one child amid the city's declining working-age population.
According to Fan Hua, the director of the city's Municipal Commission of Health and Family Planning, they have deemed 90 percent of Shanghai's child-bearing population qualified to have a second child but only 5 percent have filed their applications.
In an interview with Qianjiang Evening News, Fan explained that the possible reasons behind this low turnout are the high cost of raising children as well as the fear in some women that bearing a child would hinder their progress in their careers.
China has implemented the one-child policy since 1979 in order "to boost the nation's economic development."
The policy, however, also resulted in several consequences, including a severe imbalance in both gender and age population, making it more difficult for the small working-age population to carry the development of the entire country while supporting the huge number of elderly Chinese citizens.
Based on a report from the Population and Family Planning Commission, Shanghai is considered as the first Chinese city to experience the effects of the country's population dilemma.
According to the report, almost 30 percent of the Chinese population would be aged 60 or above, leaving fewer workers to fund the city's elderly's pensions and social programs.
Since the city's officials believe that the country needs to boost the younger population, the one-child rule was amended in Dec. 2013 and now allows "qualified couples" to have a second child.
However, statistics show that women of Shanghai are not ready for the sudden change, citing economic cost and time management as some of the major reasons why they do not wish to have another child.