A Chinese government report released Thursday called for further implementation of the country's one-child-per-family policy and praised the policy for lowering the country's birthrate, Agence France-Presse reports (Agence France-Presse, 1/12). China's one-child-per-family policy seeks to keep the country's population, now 1.3 billion, at about 1.7 billion by 2050. Ethnic minorities and farmers are the only groups legally exempt from the rule nationwide (Kaiser Daily Women's Health Policy Report, 1/2). According to the "Strategic Research Report on National Population Development," released by the National Population and Family Planning Commission, the country's birthrate has decreased from 5.8 children per woman in the 1970s -- when the one-child policy was implemented -- to 1.8 children per woman currently. The report also predicts that China's population will peak at 1.5 billion people in 2033 (Agence France-Presse, 1/12). The one-child policy has led to a gender imbalance in the country because of a preference for male children, the AP/USA Today reports (AP/USA Today, 1/12). According to government statistics, about 117 boys are born for every 100 girls born in China, compared with an average of between 104 to 107 boys per 100 girls in industrialized countries (Kaiser Daily Women's Health Policy Report, 1/2). The report said, "We need to develop a 'movement to embrace girls' ... and effectively contain the trend toward greater gender imbalances" (Agence France-Presse, 1/12). Wang Guangzhou, a researcher at China's Institute of Population and Labour Economics, said that to solve the gender imbalance, social measures that provide for elderly people should be implemented because couples would be more willing to have daughters if they knew they would not need to depend on adult sons as they age (Wang, China Daily, 1/12). According to AP/USA Today, although sex-selective abortion is prohibited in the country, the practice remains widespread and is contributing to the gender imbalance (AP/USA Today, 1/12).