(Yicai Global) March 28 -- Nearly 60 percent of Shanghai’s residents said last year that they only wanted to one child, according to the findings of an official survey.

Some 58.5 percent of the city’s residents indicated that they preferred to have a single child, 36.7 percent would like to have two, and only 2.6 percent said three, the survey done by Shanghai statistics bureau showed. More than 2 percent did not want to have any children.

Shanghai had about 24.8 million permanent residents last year, a decline of around 135,000 people from 2021, per the bureau’s data.

Almost 42 percent of the couples surveyed with one child said they do not want a second because they are happy with their current situation. More than 28 percent cited high financial costs as the reason they do not want another child, while 13 percent mentioned age or physical reasons.

Shanghai’s fertility rate was 0.7 last year, population figures released by the city’s health commission showed. The average age to have a first child was 30.36 years, while the average child-bearing age of women with permanent residence was 31.18.

Editors: Shi Yi, Futura Costaglione