- cross-posted to:
- [email protected]
- childfree
- cross-posted to:
- [email protected]
- childfree
Three more EU member states — including the most populous, Germany — have joined the list of countries with “ultra-low” fertility rates, highlighting the extent of the region’s demographic challenges.
Official statistics show Germany’s birth rate fell to 1.35 children per woman in 2023, below the UN’s “ultra-low” threshold of 1.4 — characterising a scenario where falling birth rates become tough to reverse.
Estonia and Austria also passed under the 1.4 threshold, joining the nine EU countries — including Spain, Greece and Italy — that in 2022 had fertility rates below 1.4 children per woman.
The fall in birth rates partially reflects the “postponement of parenthood until the 30s”, which involves a “higher likelihood that you will not have as many children as you would like because of the biological clock”, said Willem Adema, senior economist at the OECD.
Without immigration, low fertility rates mean a shrinking working-age population, adding pressures on public finances and limiting economic growth.
With young people reaching milestones, such as buying a house, later in life, the average age of EU women at childbirth rose to 31.1 years in 2023, a year later than a decade ago. The figure rises is 31.4 in Germany, and over 32 years in Spain, Italy and Ireland.
Austria reported a fall to 1.32 children per woman in 2023, down from 1.41 in the previous year. In Estonia, the rate hit 1.31 in 2023, down from 1.41 in the previous year.
Birth rates have fallen across Europe — even in countries such as Finland, Sweden and France, where family-friendly policies and greater gender equality had previously helped boost the number of babies.
In Finland, the birth rate was above the EU average until 2010, but it dropped to 1.26 in 2023, the lowest since the record began in 1776, according to official data.
France had the highest birth rate at 1.79 children per woman in 2022, but the national figures showed it dropped to 1.67 last year, the lowest on record.
Rates fell lower also in countries where they were already ultra-low, reaching 1.12 in Spain and 1.2 in Italy in 2023.
Guangyu Zhang, population affairs officer at the UN, called for governments “to put more family-friendly and gender-responsive policy measures in place”, saying this would enable women and men to have the multiple children that surveys claim they want.
Experts believe economic and political upheaval partly explain the trend of people having fewer children.
“You might have a job, but if you’re worried about losing it, or worried about inflation or worried about conflict in Ukraine, then you still might hesitate to have children,” said Ann Berrington, professor of demography at the University of Southampton.
Changes in social attitudes might also be at play.
Adema said: “The norms of what it means to be a good parent and how intensive you should participate in that are such that quite a few young people say: ‘Well, in addition to the fact that I don’t need children to be happy, it would also be a very difficult job for me to do, and I’m not sure that I can take that responsibility’.”
Oh, so the people in your country aren’t avoiding having kids because it’s too expensive to either give up a salary, pay for childcare and bigger housing, or both? Or because they fear bringing a child in to a world being devastated by climate change and other inequality (which you oh so conveniently ignore)?🤔
But hey, don’t let reality get in the way of your bootlicking…
(E: also, thank you for demonstrating one of the classist ableist and racist aspects of the myth - the idea and implication that people who are having more kids are “less developed”, or that those who you do consider “developed” got that way by magic or “hard work”, and not by exploiting those who you consider “less so” and their countries resources, is the epitome of that. Get off your fucking high horse)
The “less developed” part is about child mortality which seems to have a direct, instinctive, link to fertility. Pretty much every single country on earth has reached a tipping point in that regard, though some are only at the beginning of their demographic transition. It’s not a sudden drop-off but takes a while.
For a datapoint, have a highly developed country – Cuba. Their birth rates have been falling since 1964, half a century post-revolution when the healthcare system really started to kick in, now they’re lower than in the US, which also has higher infant mortality.
“classist, ableist, racist” my ass, according to demography Cuba is more highly developed than the US. Maybe look at more data and fewer narratives.
On top of that there’s also cultural factors – Israel bucks the trend under perceived extinction pressure, South Korea is a country of incels and femcels and impossible expectations, compounding the effect. France is at about 1.8, way above Germany or Italy, I’d say it’s mostly policy. Cultural differences exist but at least in my estimation nothing drastic enough to explain the difference.
Fair enough. Your country is better, as unlike in mine children are not lazy but work for a living and support their parents.
EDIT: Sorry for the dark joke, but most countries in the world have below replacement fertility rates. The strongest correlation seem to be between women’s rights and health care. So basically as soon as women, who tend to do the care work, can say no to babys many choose to do so. Health care allows for people to have access tot he pill or condoms. That is why HDI has a close correlation then GDP, as HDI includes education, which allows women to have an independent income, and life expectancy, which is a decent indicator for health care. The third factor is income, which according to [email protected] would mean that rich countries would have more children, as they can afford them. Also clearly wrong.
In other words improving peoples quality of life, lowers birth rates, which solves overpopulation. I honestly can not think of a less classist, ableist and racist thing to be proven with data.