China will ease family planning restrictions to allow all couples to have two children after decades of a strict one-child policy, the ruling Communist Party said yesterday, a move aimed at alleviating demographic strains on the economy.

The policy is a major liberalisation of the country’s family planning restrictions, already eased in late 2013 when Beijing said it would allow more families to have two children when the parents met certain conditions.

A growing number of scholars had urged the government to reform the rules, introduced in the late 1970s to prevent population growth spiralling out of control, but now regarded as outdated and responsible for shrinking China’s labour pool.

For the first time in decades the working age population fell in 2012, and China, the world’s most populous nation, could be the first country in the world to get old before it gets rich.

By around the middle of this century, one in every three Chinese is forecast to be over 60, with a dwindling proportion of working adults to support them.

China, the world’s most populous nation, could be the first country in the world to get old before it gets rich

The announcement was made at the close of a key party meeting focused on financial reforms and maintaining growth between 2016 and 2020 amid concerns over the country’s slowing economy.

China will “fully implement a policy of allowing each couple to have two children as an active response to an ageing population”, the party said in a statement carried by the official Xinhua news agency. There were no immediate details on the new policy or a timeframe for implementation.

Wang Feng, an expert on demographic and social change in China, called the change an “historic event” that would change the world but said the challenges of China’s ageing society would remain.

“It won’t have any impact on the issue of the ageing society, but it will change the character of many young families,” Mr Wang said.

Under the 2013 reform, couples in which one parent is an only child were allowed to have a second child. Critics said the relaxation of rules was too little, too late to redress the effects of the one-child policy on the economy and society.

Many parents who were allowed to have another child under the 2013 rules decided not to, especially in the cities, citing the cost of bringing up children in an expensive country.