<P> The one - child policy was a birth planning policy of China . Distinct from the family planning policies of most other countries (which focus on fulfilling parent's childbearing desires and contraceptive options), it set a limit on the number of children parents could have, the world's most extreme example of population planning . It was introduced in 1979 (after a decade long two - child policy), modified in the mid 1980s to allow rural parents a second child if the first was a daughter, and then lasted three more decades before being eliminated near the end of 2015 . The policy also allowed exceptions for some other groups, including ethnic minorities . The term one - child policy is thus a misnomer - for the last 30 of its 36 years of existence, China actually had a "1.5" - child policy that allowed about half of parents to have a second child . Provincial governments could (and did) require sterilizations and abortions to ensure compliance and imposed fines for violations . Local and national governments created commissions to raise awareness and carry out registration and inspection work . </P> <P> According to the Chinese government, 400 million births were prevented, starting from 1970 a decade before the start of the one child policy . Many scholars have disputed this claim, with Martin King Whyte and Wang et al contending that the policy had little effect on population growth or the size of the total population . China has been compared to countries with similar socioeconomic development like Thailand and Iran, along with the Indian states of Kerala and Tamil Nadu, which achieved similar declines of fertility without a one - child policy . However, a recent demographic study challenged these scholars by showing that China's low fertility was achieved two or three decades earlier than would be expected given its level of development, and that more than 500 million births were prevented between 1970 and 2015 based on alternate models of fertility decline proposed by the scholars themselves . In addition, by 2060 China's birth planning policies may have averted as many as 1 billion people in China when one adds in all the eliminated descendants of the births originally averted by the policies . Although 76% of Chinese people said that they supported the policy in a 2008 survey, it was controversial outside of China . </P> <P> In October 2015, the Chinese government announced that no family would be limited to just one child, although as of today it still has a two - child policy . The new law took effect on January 1, 2016, following its passage in the standing committee of the National People's Congress on December 27, 2015 . </P> <P> During the period of Mao Zedong's leadership in China, the birth rate fell from 37 per thousand to 20 per thousand . Infant mortality declined from 227 per thousand births in 1949 to 53 per thousand in 1981, and life expectancy dramatically increased from around 35 years in 1948 to 66 years in 1976 . Until the 1960s, the government encouraged families to have as many children as possible because of Mao's belief that population growth empowered the country, preventing the emergence of family planning programs earlier in China's development . The population grew from around 540 million in 1949 to 940 million in 1976 . Beginning in 1970, citizens were encouraged to marry at later ages and have only two children . </P>

When did china remove the one child policy