About 700,000 Chinese couples in which one of the partners is an only child applied to have a second child by the end of August, and 620,000 of them got a permit, the National Health and Family Planning Commission said on Wednesday.

That's far fewer than previous estimates by the authority, which put the annual births increase due to the policy change at more than 2 million.

More than 11 million couples became eligible to have a second baby after the country decided in November to ease the family planning rules by allowing couples to have a second child if one of the parents is an only child. Previously, both the husband and wife had to be an only child if they wanted a second child.