The bar chart demonstrates the percentage of the growth of single-child parents varies in China’s different regions in the 20-year period from 1980 to 2000.
It can be clearly seen that the rates of cities and outskirts areas had a similar pattern, while rural ones demonstrated lower figure.
Initially, the proportion of single-child families varied significantly across regions. In 1980, cities had roughly half of households with only one child (around 50%), while the outskirts showed a lower figure of approximately 40%. Rural areas lagged far behind, with only about 10% of families complying with the one-child policy. Thus, at the starting point, there was a clear downward gradient from urban to rural zones.
Over the following two decades, there was a rapid and nearly universal increase. By 1990, the figures had risen to about 95% in cities and around 70% in the outskirts, while rural areas doubled their proportion to approximately 20%. By 2000, cities and outskirts had almost converged at around 100% and slightly below, indicating near-complete adherence. The largest relative growth occurred in rural areas, where the proportion reached about 70%, although a gap with more urbanized regions still remained.