More than 1,700 Shanghai couples receive second-child approval

More than 1,700 couples with one spouse who is an only child have received approval to have a second kid in the first month since Shanghai relaxed the one-child policy.

These applications accounted for 60.8 percent of the second-child applications last month, the Shanghai Health and Family Planning Commission said Tuesday.

The Pudong New Area received the most second-child applications among the city's districts with Minhang and Xuhui rounding out the top three.

The commission said the number of applications were in line with the registered population in each district.

Female applicants seeking to have a second child were on average 33 years old. The youngest was 22 and the oldest 45. The average age of male applicants was 35. The youngest was 23 and the oldest 54.

Among the 1,730 applicants, the average age of each family's first child was 5.8 years with the youngest six months and the oldest 16 years.

Couples whose first child is a girl are more likely to apply to have a second child, the commission said.

Studies have found that couples wanting a second child are usually well educated.

Shanghai relaxed the one-child policy on March 1.