BEIJING: As the most populous country in the world prepares for a coming demographic crisis, the Sichuan province in southwest China will lift its three-child birth restriction and eliminate restrictions on single parents.

According to official data released this month, China's population shrank last year for the first time in more than 60 years, and the 1.4 billion-person country has seen birth rates fall to all-time lows as its workforce ages.

In response to concerns about population growth, China ended its strict "one-child policy" in 2016 and starting allowing couples to have three children in 2021.

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However, it hasn't been able to stop the demographic decline. Authorities in Sichuan announced on Monday that they would lift a ban on single women registering births and remove the cap on how many children a family can have as a result of declining birth rates.

The new regulations would go into effect on February 15, according to the Sichuan Provincial Health Commission. In 2017, the National Health Commission stated that unmarried pregnancies in China were "against the public order and against good morals."

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The last time China's population fell was in 1960, when the Great Leap Forward, a disastrous Mao Zedong agricultural policy, contributed to the worst famine in the nation's modern history.

The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) in Beijing recently reported that the population was approximately 1,411,750,000 at the end of 2022, down 850,000 from the end of the previous year.

Many blame the slowdown on the rising cost of living, the rise in the number of women working and pursuing higher education, as well as the rising cost of living. Numerous local authorities have already started taking action to support couples in having children.

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Shenzhen, a megacity in the south, offers birth bonuses up to 10,000 yuan (about $1,500) and pays allowances until the child is three years old, as an example.