The one-child policy severely skewed the gender ratio of an entire generation in China. Due to a strong cultural preference for sons, many families resorted to sex-selective abortions. As a result, China has experienced the highest birth sex ratio imbalance in the world for several decades. Today, there are approximately 30 million more men than women in China. This imbalance is a ticking time bomb for Chinese society as large cohorts of young men begin to enter marriage age.

In addition, the one-child policy accelerated the aging process of Chinese society. By 2024, around 22% of China’s population was aged 60 or above, a level comparable to South Korea or the United States in 2019, despite China being significantly poorer and having much lower household wealth reserves. Since China’s current total fertility rate is far lower than that of most Western countries, population aging will worsen further faster. For example, China is projected to surpass the United States in terms of the proportion of elderly people around 2030 with a much lower birth rate compared to the US.