Developments and characteristics of fertility support policies in China over the past decade

Abstract Introduction Encouraging childbearing is an important measure to optimise the current age structure of the population, and the core fertility support policy is fertility-friendly as well as family-friendly. Materials and methods This paper statistically analyses the fertility support policies of the country and provinces and cities in the past ten years to clarify the developmental changes and improvement trends of fertility support policies. Results Around the evolution of the policy theme, the fertility support policy shows the development trend of sprouting to shaping, unidirectional to expanding the dimension and increasing the surface, auxiliary to active, valuing birth to valuing parenting, family to socialisation, adjusting the number of births to reducing the cost of childbearing, raising and educating. Discussion and conclusion Further attention needs to be paid to the holistic, systemic, family and gender perspectives of the policy.