17.5 million newborns for China in 2016

The number of newborns this year is the highest in China this century with 17.5 million births, a rise of 5.7 per cent from last year.

As China's one-child policy ends, the country records highest number of newborns this century. Source: AAP

China is ending 2016 - the year that saw the scrapping of the country's strict three-decade-long one child policy - with 17.5 million newborns.

This is a rise of 5.7 per cent as compared to last year, when the country recorded the birth of 16.55 million babies, official daily Global Times reported on Friday.

The figure shows "steady growth" of the birth rate following a relaxation of demographic policies, and is in line with estimates, said senior officials of the Chinese National Health and Family Planning Commission, which met this week to analyse the initial effects of the reform.

The number of newborns this year is the highest in the country this century; in 2001, the number had only slightly brushed past the 17 million mark, while following years saw it oscillate between 15 and 16 million, with 2006 recording the lowest of 15.84 million.

Starting January 1, 2016, all Chinese couples were allowed to have two children, the culmination of a process of easing its notorious population control policy that had began in 2013, with the government allowing couples, where one of the partners was an only child, to have two children.

In data released in October, 44 per cent of the babies born in the first half of 2016 are second-borns, a jump of 6.9 and 16.7 per cent as compared to 2015, and the beginning of this decade, respectively.

In some regions, especially the main cities, the proportion of second-borns among the total new births was over 50 per cent.

Demographers hope that allowing two children per couple will raise the active national population by 30 million by 2050.

China is expected to reach its maximum population in 2029 - two years later than if the one-child rule had stayed in place - and numbers are set to stabilise around 1.38 billion, instead of the 1.2 billion estimated under the previous norm.

It was in the late 1970s that China came up with the rule mandating just one child per couple to curb its rising population, but an ageing demographic that threatens its future economic stability has forced it to ease the norm.

Some experts opine the new move, allowing two children per couple, is not enough to put the brakes on the ageing problem, and have recommended complete freedom to families in the matter.