VOA新闻杂志2022 研究称中国育儿成本高于美国和日本（在线收听）

New research shows that the cost of raising a child in China is nearly seven times its GDP per capita, far more than in the United States and Japan.

新的研究表明，中国育儿成本几乎是其人均国内生产总值的7倍，远高于美国和日本。

GDP, or gross domestic product, is the measure of the total value of goods and services in a country. GDP per capita is a measure resulting from GDP divided by the size of a nation's total population.

国内生产总值是衡量一个国家商品和服务总价值的指标。人均国内生产总值是用国内生产总值除以一国总人口规模得出的衡量标准。

The high cost of child-raising is one more difficulty Chinese policymakers face as they try to deal with quickly decreasing birth rates.

高昂的育儿成本是中国政策制定者在应对出生率快速下降时面临的又一大难题。

Experts warn China's aging population will put pressure on its health and social security systems. A decrease in workers could also severely limit growth for the world's second largest economy in the coming years.

专家警告说，中国人口老龄化将对医疗和社会保障体系构成压力。工人的减少也可能会严重限制这个全球第二大经济体未来数年的增长。

New policies permit families to have as many as three children. But China's birth rate dropped to 7.52 births per 1,000 people in 2021. That is the lowest since the National Bureau of Statistics began recording the information in 1949.

新政策允许家庭最多生育3个孩子。但是2021年中国的出生率降至7.52‰。这是自1949年国家统计局开始统计该信息以来的最低水平。

The high costs of raising a child have caused officials in China to place restrictions on the private tutoring industry. Some areas have been giving couples money for having a second or third child.

高昂的育儿成本导致中国官员对家教行业施加了限制。一些地区一直向生育第二个或第三个孩子的夫妇提供补贴。

The average cost of raising a child to the age of 18 in China in 2019 was 485,000 yuan for a first child. That is 6.9 times China's GDP per capita that year. That information comes from a recent report from the YuWa Population Research Institute in Beijing.

2019年中国抚养第一个孩子到18岁的平均成本是48.5万元。这是当年中国人均国内生产总值的6.9倍。该信息来自北京育娲人口研究所最新的一份报告。

China ranks second highest among the 13 countries included in the study. The country is behind only South Korea, which has the lowest birth rate in the world. The United States number, based on 2015 data, is at 4.11 times GDP per capita. Japan stands at 4.26, based on data from 2010.

在纳入研究的13个国家中，中国排名第二。该国仅次于全球出生率最低的韩国。根据2015年的数据，美国的这一数字是其人均国内生产总值的4.11倍。根据2010年的数据，日本为4.26倍。

Child raising costs are even higher in China's major cities, reaching more than 1 million yuan in Shanghai and 969,000 yuan in Beijing. Birth rates in the two cities are even lower than the national average.

中国主要城市的育儿成本更高，上海超过100万元，北京则达到96.9万元。这两个城市的出生率甚至低于全国平均水平。

YuWa warned the decreasing birth rate would "profoundly affect" China's economic growth potential, its ability to create and its welfare problems.

育娲人口研究所警告说，出生率下降将会“深刻影响”中国的经济增长潜力、创造能力以及福利问题。

The study found that China would need to spend at least 5 percent of its yearly GDP to provide reasons for couples to have more children. That would include education funding, special housing loan rates and tax breaks. Other considerations include equal time for mothers and fathers to be away from their jobs and the building of more childcare centers.

该研究发现，中国需要耗费年度国内生产总值的5%才能让夫妇有理由生育更多孩子。这将包括教育经费、住房贷款特别利率以及税收减免。其它考虑因素还包括为父母提供平等的产假，以及建立更多的托儿所。