Rural vs Urban

China's One-Child Policy has been in place since the 1970s in an attempt to curb population growth. Chinese officials estimate their land can only support a 1% growth rate each year, and have it made it mandatory for families to only have one child. This is strictly enforced in the major cities, but rural governments tend to be more relaxed since extra labor is needed in farming communities.

City dwellers usually have only one child per couple, whereas people who live in rural areas often have 2 or more babies. Urban dwellers are also economically better off: with incomes averaging three times greater than rural dwellers, urban children are raised in more favorable economic conditions than rural children. Some have also argued that, because of this, the only-children in urban families end up being spoiled, while the rural children often lack the necessary resources to be well fed and educated. It sometimes leads to the enlarging gap between the rich and poor. This is because the wealthy have only one baby with thrice the revenue of the poor, who may have two or more babies with 1/3 of the revenue of the rich. For these reasons, the policy was resisted in rural communities. In the face of such resistance, the policy would have required more drastic measures than the Chinese government was willing to use.