It's been nearly a year since couples in Shanghai were encouraged to have a second child, as long as one parent is the only child. But so far, the policy has delivered results, far lower than city authorities expected.

By the end of 2014, over 16-thousand of Shanghai's 370-thousand eligible couples had applied for a second child. The application rate is just over 4 percent; much lower than the national average of 9 percent. It is not just a single issue for Shanghai.

Across China, only 700-thousand eligible couples have applied for a second child since the family planning policy was relaxes earlier last year. This figure is just one-third of what the authorities expected.