More than 40,000 couples in Beijing have applied to have a second child since China relaxed its one-child policy last year, but observers said this was short of the government target and would not lift the low birth rate.The Beijing Municipal Commission of Health and Family Planning said that, since May 31, it has received 42,075 applications for a second child, with 38,798 approved.

Among the applicants, 57 percent were between 31 and 35 years old, about 23 percent were between 26 and 30 and 2 percent above 40.

The relaxed policy allows couples to have a second child if either spouse is an only child.

Lu Jiehua, a professor of social demography at Peking University, told the Global Times that despite the increase, the number is far from the government target of 50,000 a year.

"It has been 15 months since the policy was implemented, there should have been more than 60,000 applications by now," he said, adding that the number of births would also be fewer than the number of applications for various reasons.

"The government initially predicted that 60 percent of qualified couples would apply, but many do not want to have a second baby because of their career, financial status and lack of time to take care of children," he said.

Some 450,000 couples from the city of 21 million people are qualified to have a second child.

Nanjing, capital of Jiangsu Province, has 270,000 qualified couples but as of March, the government only received 12,766 applications, local news site yangtse.com reported.

China's fertility rate stands at 1.18, much lower than the international maintenance level of 2.1. Lu said the government may consider providing more incentives such as simplifying the application process and consultation services to encourage couples to apply for a second child.

The National Health and Family Planning Commission said that as of January, about 1 million applications have been submitted around the country.