According to Chinese officials, the policy has successfully prevented 400 million births.
Other sources agree that the policy has been effective in reducing fertility rates - Professor Wang Feng of the University of California has said that "The total fertility rate - the number of children a woman is expected to have in her lifetime - was reduced from over five to slightly over two". However the policy is not always described as a success due to the extent of the other issues that it has created (see above).
This BBC news article considers to what extent the policy has worked and looks at some of the negative impacts.
