Shanghai will register a positive growth rate of its population this year for the first time since 1993.

Officials from the family planning authority said it will be the first time the birth rate will be higher than the death rate since the city became the first in the nation to have a negative growth rate of registered residents in 1993.

The city's permanent population, which includes people with registered residency and those living in the city for more than half a year, rose to 18.58 million by the end of last year, about 400,000 more than in 2006, the Shanghai Population and Family Planning Commission said.

The city had 166,600 new babies in 2007, as the registered residents gave birth to 100,800 babies, a birth rate of 0.9 percent; and out-of-town people living for more than six months in the city delivered 65,800 babies.

The city's natural growth rate for all permanent residents was 0.3 percent last year, up from 2006's 0.158 percent.

"We have expected that the city would end its negative growth rate in 2010 but the present baby boom may make this arrive earlier," said Sun Changmin, vice director of the population and family planning commission.

The baby boom, which started in 2006 and is expected to end in 2015, has resulted in soaring demands on maternity hospitals and postnatal services and concerns about future education. Local maternity hospitals have had to restrict out-patient consultations and shortened the length of stay for women delivering babies.

The Shanghai Education Commission says the city may have a shortage of 500 kindergartens in three to four years.

As well as expecting more babies, the city is facing an imbalance in the sex ratios of the newborn. The male to female ratio for children of permanent residents' children is 115 per 100 - higher than the acceptable range of between 103 to 107 per 100.

(Shanghai Daily February 27, 2008)