DHAKA: Far fewer Chinese couples applied to have a second child than expected after a relaxation of the country’s ‘one child’ policy, state-run media reported on Thursday, highlighting the ageing nation’s demographic challenges.

The world’s most populous country has restricted most families to a single child since the late 1970s, but the Communist party said that couples would be allowed to have two offspring so long as one of the parents is an only child, rather than both.

The authorities had expected the change to result in more than two million extra births a year, but out of more than 11 million couples eligible, only 700,000 had applied for permission by the end of August, the China Daily newspaper said, citing the National Health and Family Planning Commission.

Of those, 620,000 had been authorised, it added.

The lower-than-expected desire to have more children might reflect changing perceptions of reproduction, particularly in cities, said Professor Lu Jiehua, a demography professor at Peking University, according to the report, says The Straits Times.

BDST: 1316 HRS, OCT 30, 2014