China's Childcare Costs Among Highest in World, Think Tank Says

AsiaOne ^ | FEBRUARY 21, 2024

[nickcarraway]

China is one of the world's most expensive places to raise a child, relative to its GDP per capita, a prominent Chinese think tank said on Wednesday (Feb 21) as it detailed the time and opportunity costs for women who opt to have children in the country.

The cost of raising a child until they are 18 relative to per capita GDP is around 6.3 times in China versus 2.08 times in Australia, 2.24 times in France, 4.11 times in the US and 4.26 times in Japan, said a report by the Beijing-based YuWa Population Research Institute.

Raising children also leads to a reduction in women's paid work hours and wage rates, while men's livelihoods remain largely unchanged. Because the current social environment in China is not friendly to women's fertility, the time cost and opportunity cost for women to have children are too high," said the report, co-authored by Liang Jianzhang, founder of online travelling site Ctrip and also a founder of the YuWa institute.

[Fai Mao]

China is an expensive place to live in a lot of ways. But president Xi is still less authoritarian than Biden

[sauropod]

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