 women has come down and their average age at first marriage has gone up. In 1992, the proportion of women entering first marriage before the age of 20 dropped to 12.9 percent of the total number of firstmarriage women. In 1970, women's average age at first marriage was 20.2 years, while in 1993 it was 22.67 years, up 2.47 years. The family size has become gradually smaller and nucleus family is becoming the major form of modern Chinese families. According to China's fourth national census, the average size of families in 1990 was 3.96 persons, 0.88 person less than the 4.84 persons in 1971. The major reason for the reduction of family size is a reduction in the number of births. Compared with 1970, of the babies born in 1993 the first-birth rate and second-birth rate increased from 20.7 percent and 17.1 percent to 61.3 percent and 27.5 percent respectively, and the multiple-birth rate dropped from 62.2 percent to 11.2 percent. By 1994, a total of 46.76 million couples had volunteered to give birth to only one child throughout the country, accounting for 20.3 percent of the total married women at child-bearing age. At the current level of economic development and living standards in China, the reduction of family size and fewer children to support have obviously reduced the economic burden and the burden of family chores on the families and improved their quality of life.
3. Family planning has created favourable conditions for the development of China's economy and the improvement of people's living standards.
In vigorously promoting family planning, China strives to make the speed of population growth much lower than the speed of growth in the gross national product, thus gradually raising the per-capita level. A part from the reform and opening to the outside world, family planning has been a factor for the sustained economic development of China and the steady improvement of its people's living standards over the past ten years and more. From 1952 to 1978, China's gross domestic product (GDP) increased 4.7-fold. The per-capita GDP, however, increased by only 2.8-fold. From 1978 to 1994, while upholding reform and opening to the outside world and making great efforts to develop the economy, China persisted in doing a good job in family planning. In this period, the GDP went up 4.2-fold and the per-capita GDP increased 3.4-fold. During the same period, thanks to improvements in the quality of people's lives and the rise in their purchasing power, China's consumer goods market expanded 13.7-fold, and the total retail sales volume of consumer goods increased by an annual average of 17.2 percent. In 1994, the total volume of retail sales of consumer goods in China was 1,605.3 billion yuan. China has become a market with the greatest potential in the world. Compared with 1978, living standards have markedly improved, the urban people's per-capita incomes for living expenses increased 10-fold, at an annual increase of 15.5 percent; the per-capita net incomes for rural families went up 9-fold, at an annual increase of 14.8 percent. In Chinese cities and towns, the per-capita housing increased from 3.6 square metres to 7.5 square metres, and in the rural areas it increased from 8.1 square metres to 20.8 square metres. For the overwhelming majority of families, the basic needs of living, such as food, clothing, daily-use articles and housing, were met. The possession rate of durable goods, such as TV sets, cassette tape recorders, refrigerators and washing machines, approached the level of the moderately developed countries.
4. Family planning has promoted the improvement of the quality of the Chinese population in terms of education and health as well as the overall development of the people.
China's family planning has always included the two aspects of controlling the population size and improving the population quality in terms of education and health. While making efforts to control the population at an appropriate size, the Chinese government has devoted great attention to developing educational, medical and other servic