In July, the Chinese government announced that a revision to the one-child policy had been implemented throughout the country's provinces and regions. The announcement of the revision, which allows couples in which either partner is an only child to have up to two children, heralded the end of the controversial policy. More relaxed family planning measures have long been in place for rural and ethnic minority communities, and most urban Chinese of childbearing age now were the only children in their families, so the revision dramatically narrows the portion of China's population to which the original one-child policy still applies. The purpose of the one-child policy — limiting the population shaping demographic trends — was superseded many years ago by the far more fundamental forces of industrialization and urbanization . Two decades ago, China's fertility rate fell below 2.1, the generally accepted population replacement rate.