Last year Chinese President Xi Jinping emphasised the significance of returning to the culture of marriage and childbearing.
“Women should tell good family tradition stories,” he said attempting to ensure that marriage and making children find their way back to the social pedestal and enjoy the status they did two generations ago. In 2023, China’s population fell for the second year consecutively 2023 to a record-low birth rate of 6.39 per 1000 people.
Reverse or declining population has a far-reaching effect on a nation's growth and economy. China is not the only one battling the population decline.
South Korea, already facing the world’s lowest fertility rate, continued its steep decline in 2023. The latest data from Statistics Korea shows that the average number of expected babies for a South Korean woman, during her reproductively active years, fell to a record low of 0.72 from 0.78 in 2022.
In developed economies, the decline is directly associated with women concerned about their career advancement, the financial cost of raising children and the working couples’ voluntary decision to delay childbirth or not to have babies at all.
In a controversial statement and an unconventional move to tackle Russia’s declining birth rate, last month President Vladimir Putin reportedly advised Russians to consider using their work breaks to get intimate. The “sex-at-work” directive, during coffee breaks and lunch breaks, comes as Russia grapples with population decline with a fertility rate of 1.5 children per woman, which is significantly below the rate of 2.1 required for population stability of the country.
Reportedly, several hospitals in China stopped offering newborn delivery services this year due to declining demand. In Asia, China is not the only country facing the reverse population growth, many countries in East and Southeast Asia are also in the middle of a population crisis. This is in stark contrast to a few decades earlier (1950 –1970) when the fertility rates in East Asian and Southeast Asian countries ranged from 3.5 to 7.7.
Why it’s a problem
Apart from falling below the rates required to maintain the population, low fertility rates and population figures are directly tied to the economic growth of a nation. Research has shown that population decline is the most resistant to any incentives given for baby-making. University of Michigan demographer and family sociologist Zhou Yun while discussing China’s population trends said, “We have observed again and again from other low fertility countries, that fertility decline is often very difficult to reverse.” Births in China have been plummeting for decades in a row now, partly due to the country’s one-child policy, which was fiercely implemented from 1980 to 2015. Youth unemployment, falling wages, high cost of living have been further fuelling the decline in baby-making in China. U.N. experts predict China’s population will fall by 109 million by 2050.
In Europe too, in 2022 the number of live births in the European Union reached its lowest since 1960. In 2022, only 3.88 million babies were born in the EU, marking its lowest figure ever as it for the first time fell below 4 million. The dramatic decline in global fertility rates will have a long-standing impact whose effects cannot be fully known at the moment. In a study published in The Lancet by 2050, over three-quarters (155 of 204) of countries will not have high enough fertility rates to sustain population size over time. This will increase to 97% of countries (198 of 204) by 2100.
What is the way out?
Last year, Japan’s Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said the case of solving the declining population was “now or never” and the issue “simply cannot wait any longer.” In an address to the country's lawmakers, he added that the country was “on the brink of not being able to maintain social functions” due to the falling birth rate.
The number of births fell for an eighth consecutive year in 2023, making the demographic crisis one of Japan’s most pressing issues. Double the spending on child-related programs is among the many steps that the country is currently undertaking, apart from making child-rearing support its top priority.
In China, hoping to make baby making a priority, the local governments have announced a slew of measures to encourage childbirth. The incentives include tax deductions, longer maternity leaves and housing subsidies.
Addressing the core universal reasons for low fertility like high childcare and education, job market uncertainties, and reduced discrimination from the corporate sector for women into maternity will eventually, if at all, have any direct impact in reversing the crisis.
Follow us
