DESPITE increasing child care costs, 4,413 local couples had a second child in 2004, 1.7 times more than in the previous year. The number of city residents reached 17.42 million, according to the Shanghai Population and Family Planning Commission.

Population experts attribute the increase in part to the revision of the Shanghai Population and Family Planning Regulation on April 15, 2004. The revision abolished the mandatory four-year waiting period after the birth of the first child, which enabled more couples to have a second child earlier.

Under the present Chinese family planning policy, couples who are both only child in their families or couples with one coming from one-child family and the other from a rural family, can now have a second child without paying compulsory social support costs for the second child.

During last year, a total 442 couples who met these two criteria had a second child in Shanghai, compared with 131 who did so in 2003. "This is the most dramatic increase among all couples having second children," said Xie Lingli, director of the commission, during a news conference.

The one-child policy was implemented in China in the late 1970s and early 1980s, and the first one-child generation has now married and begun having children. "Under these circumstances, the number of second children will continue to grow over the coming years," said Xie.

Meanwhile, the number of families having a second child because the first suffers from a (non-hereditary) disability dropped by nearly 2 per cent last year.

The commission also revealed that the city's total number of residents had exceeded 17.42 million, with registered population of 13.52 million by the end of 2004. The city's registered population has been dropping during the past 12 years.

Local authorities have taken various measures to optimize the population structure of the aging city, where 20 per cent of residents are over 60 years old. "We have tried in five districts to introduce groups of workers from other areas after they have received systematic technical training to work for local enterprises. The practice proved to be very successful, and we will further enhance it," said Xie.