<P> The abolition may not achieve a significant benefit, as the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation analysis indicated: "Repealing the one - child policy may not spur a huge baby boom, however, in part because fertility rates are believed to be declining even without the policy's enforcement . Previous easings of the one - child policy have spurred fewer births than expected, and many people among China's younger generations see smaller family sizes as ideal ." The CNN reporter adds that China's new prosperity is also a factor in the declining birth rate, saying, "Couples naturally decide to have fewer children as they move from the fields into the cities, become more educated, and when women establish careers outside the home ." </P> <P> The one - child policy was managed by the National Population and Family Planning Commission under the central government since 1981 . The Ministry of Health of the People's Republic of China and the National Health and Family Planning Commission were made defunct and a new single agency National Health and Family Planning Commission took over national health and family planning policies in 2013 . The agency reports to the State Council . </P> <P> The policy was enforced at the provincial level through fines that were imposed based on the income of the family and other factors . "Population and Family Planning Commissions" existed at every level of government to raise awareness and carry out registration and inspection work . </P> <P> According to a 2017 study in the Journal of Economic Perspectives, it is complicated to evaluate the effects of the one - child policy on family outcomes because the Chinese government had already enacted aggressive birth planning policies before the introduction of the one - child policy; seen a sharp drop in fertility rates before the enactment of the one - child policy; the one - child policy coincided with Chinese economic reform which would have contributed to reduced fertility rates; and other developing East Asian countries also experienced sharp declines in fertility rates . According to the study, "the one - child policy accelerated the already - occurring drop in fertility for a few years, but in the longer term, economic development played a more fundamental role in leading to and maintaining China's low fertility level .". However, according to another study, even after taking rapid economic development into account, China's fertility restrictions had a notable and long lasting impact on fertility rates, leading to well over 500 million averted births between 1970 and 2015, with the portion caused by one - child restrictions possibly totaling 400 million . </P>

What was china's population before the one child policy