By Wang Ying (China Daily)
Updated: 2007-11-06 11:01

Hou said that the top four factors that determined people's intentions to have children were "income, child care, housing and policy conditions".

"The government should encourage couples from one-child families to have a second child and should provide better welfare services."

This would promote population sustainability, Hou said.

The survey also found that people with higher education backgrounds intend to have more children because they are more confident with their economic circumstances and financial security.

Some cities have maintained negative population growth for years, due to the implementation of the family planning policy in the late 1970s and early 1980s.

To promote a slightly higher population growth rate, some provincial governments have since relaxed rules and allowed more people to have more than one child.

In Shanghai, the death rate has outstripped the birth rate for more than 10 years, and less than 30 percent of couples both from only-child families have had a second child.

"China has entered its desired low fertility period and the present fertility culture is expected to last for a long period," Mu Guangzong, a population professor with Peking University, said.

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