China’s two-child policy has led to 5.4 million more births

China reversed course on its one-child policy in 2015 to address its stagnant population, and new research finds that more than 5 million children have been born since. Researchers looked at two national databases in 28 out of the 31 provinces in the country and found that between January 2016 and December 2017, some 5.4 million births can be attributed to the new policy, which allows for two children instead of one. There was a 9 percentage point increase in moms who had then given birth to two children. The rates of women over 35 giving birth as well as of C-sections among women giving birth to more than one child also went up. Despite these changes, there was no evidence that negative outcomes among the babies — such as preterm births — increased.