China's National Health and Family Planning Commission (NHFPC) revealed on Thursday that around two million Chinese couples have applied to have a second baby in 2015, according to a Global Times report.
Speaking with the publication, Zhai Zhenwu, chairman of the NHFPC's China Population Association standing council, the result is "generally in line with what [the bureau] has expected.
Zhai further remarked that the commission expects that the number of couple who wish to have a second baby could reach as high as 5 million over the next few years.
Meanwhile, the chairman also stated he is hopeful that the landmark two-child policy will assist in solving China's unbalanced sex ratio at birth.
State-run Xinhua News Agency said that according to national authorities' estimate, there will be around 2 million more infants who will be born each year because of the relaxed policy. Of this figure, approximately 80 percent will be born in cities.
Nonetheless, demographics expert Huang Wenzheng told the Global Times that the recent statistic is far from the previous projection by the officials.
Instead of an increase, the National Bureau of Statistics showed that the number of Chinese newborn has dropped to 16.55 million in 2015. 2014's figure was higher by 320,000.
The easing of the decades-long one-child policy was held back in 2013, allowing couples to have a second baby if one of them is an only child.
In 2015, China's top legislature enacted a new legislation completely abandoning the former family planning policy. Currently, all Chinese couples are now permitted to have a second child.
Along with the new policy, China has also intensified its family planning services.
The NHFPC revealed that the Chinese government has spent a total of 11.2 billion yuan to support the family planning of households in rural areas.
The commission further revealed that this project has helped more than 9 million individuals.
Moreover, a bulletin released on Thursday showed that almost 90 percent of migrant workers in China has free access to different family planning services.