China announced it will modify its one-child policy that requires all couples only have one child on Friday.
News agency Xinhua reported that urban families will be allowed two children if one of the two parents is an only child.
Citizens who live in rural areas and ethnic minorities are currently exempt from the policy, according to the BBC.
The decision to augment the policy, which is heavily enforced by the government and has caused major shifts in Chinese society, came after a meeting for one of the central decision-making bodies of the Communist Party.
Following this week's meeting, Chinese leaders also annulled "re-education through labor" camps, a program created 50 years ago that has led to the incarceration of thousands of inmates - most of whom have received sentences with no trial. Removing the camps was "part of efforts to improve human rights and judicial practices," Xinhua reported.
The policy will be "adjusted and improved step by step to promote 'long-term balanced development of the population in China,'" according to a statement released by the governing Communist Party on Friday.
The one-child rule has led to a quickly aging population in China, along with an enormous disproportion between the number of men and women in the country, according to Slate.
China first enacted the policy at the tail end of the 1970s as a solution to a rapid upshot in population growth.
