Compare the economic, social, and environmental factors that motivate Sweden's and China's respective population policies.

Answer:

Sweden’s policies respond mainly to low fertility, population aging, labor-force needs, and the cost of sustaining its welfare state. It encourages births through child benefits, subsidized child care, parental leave, and gender-equality policies. China’s former policies responded to rapid population growth, limited land and water, pressure on food and housing, unemployment, public services, and environmental degradation. It restricted births, most notably through the one-child policy, although it later allowed two and then three children because of aging and labor shortages. Socially, Sweden emphasizes individual choice and shared parenting, while China’s restrictive policies produced serious human-rights concerns, a sex-ratio imbalance, and accelerated aging. Both governments considered economic and environmental sustainability, but they used opposite demographic strategies.