Chinese state media said the government will continue to limit most families to just one child in the coming decades despite concerns about the policy's problematic side effects, such as too few girls and a rapidly ageing population.

The government credits the 30-year-old family planning limit with preventing 400 million additional births and helping break a traditional preference for large families that left many trapped in cycles of poverty.

The China Daily newspaper today quoted the head of the National Population and Family Planning Administration as saying that the policy would not change "in the coming decades".

The policy limits urban couples to one child and rural families to two.