Birth rate | Everything has been tried, but the birth rate has not been raised anywhere

if carrots don't taste good, how about a free bunny?

In Taiwan's presidential election, a familiar problem, the declining birth rate, was discussed recently. One of the candidates, a billionaire Terry Gou suggested that the children's parents be given a free pet.

“If there are no children in the future, who will take care of our furry friends?” Gou said according to the online magazine Vox. “So I thought I'd combine these things.”

Birth almost everything has already been tried in Taiwan to reverse the rise – and the same is true elsewhere. A working method has not been invented.

In Finland, there is now a discussion about the declining birth rate. The same discussion is going on in dozens of other countries.

In order for the population not to start decreasing, more than 2.1 children must be born for each woman – after all, at some point both of the children's parents will die.

In the whole world, the birth rate is now just over this limit.

Published last week according to the study the entire world fertility rate is now 2.2.

In 46 percent of the world's countries, the number is already below the recurrence limit. Their population will therefore inevitably decrease, unless immigration is increased.

A shrinking population results in many problems. There are fewer payers for pensions, fewer contributors to work. The economy is going down.

in Finland and the birth rate in the Nordic countries has long been quite high by European standards. In Europe, the birth rate started to decline clearly already in the 1970s.

Fertility has also turned to growth in East Asia surprisingly early. When China introduced its one-child policy in 1979, fertility was already on the decline.

Since the changes will take place over a few decades, China's population will start to decline in 2022.

Even India, the world's most populous country, is teetering on the brink of renewal.

The population is growing rapidly, mainly in sub-Saharan Africa. It is still a big problem, when resources have to be distributed to an even greater number of people while climate change progresses. But equally problems are caused by the collapse of the population,

Demographers estimate that the world's population will rise to about ten billion and then collapse sharply towards the end of the century.

everything so it has been tried. Nowhere has it been possible to permanently increase the fertility rate.

Exceptions are demographers Jennifer Sciubban according to one, and it required drastic human rights violations.

In his book 8 billion and counting: How Sex, Death, And Migration Shape Our World Sciubba tells how the Romanian dictator Nicolae Ceausescu became concerned in the 1960s about population decline. Ceausescu banned birth control and abortions, and women had to undergo monthly medical examinations.

Romania's fertility rate rose to 3.7. But when coercive measures were lifted, fertility began to decline again.

Financial ones reasons have a lot to do with starting a family. The general rise in the standard of living usually causes fertility to drop at some point, when there is no need to have children as breadwinners.

Even in more prosperous societies, the economy is still important. After the 2007 financial crisis, the birth rate fell in the United States, where the safety net is weak.

So, one might think that by increasing subsidies for families with children, one could easily improve fertility. But it doesn't work that way.

when the fertility rate in Hungary fell to 1.2, the lowest in the EU, measures were taken in the country.

Hungary already suffers from a chronic labor shortage. No work can be done, and Hungary's economy could grow if there were workers for the work. The situation could be influenced by immigration, but Hungary's right-wing populist government is not even considering it.

“Increasing immigration would be surrender”, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán Has said.

In Hungary, parents of children receive a loan of 30,000 euros, which does not have to be repaid if more than three children are born. Families with children receive a bonus of 35,000 euros for buying their first home.

Mothers of at least four children receive a lifetime tax exemption.

This will be as expensive as it sounds. Hungary spends about five percent to increase fertility of its gross domestic product.

The effect has been overwhelming. Hungary has indeed been able to increase the fertility rate from 1.2 to 1.6, but Hungary is still far from the population renewal threshold.

Also In recent years, Poland has used money to raise the birth rate. It introduced a program that increased child benefits and family benefits.

The birth rate rose for a while, but has returned to the downward trend. Now, fewer children are born in Poland than at any time since the Second World War.

The Nordic model has invested in early childhood education, but even that no longer serves as an incentive.

Why the birth rate then decreases?

The decline has been going on for at least 50 years and affects almost all corners of the world, religions and social systems. There is no single reason, but at least the following things have an effect:

Improving education for women and girls. When women's educational opportunities have improved, women are no longer dependent on starting a family. Education also improves freedom of choice when it comes to starting a family.

Family planning. Access to contraception and abortions reduces the number of unwanted pregnancies. In the United States, the decline in the birth rate in the last decade is partly explained by the fact that the number of teenage pregnancies decreased. Now the United States is one of the few countries where obtaining an abortion has been made significantly more difficult in recent years.

Decline in religiosity. For a long time, the birth rate in the Catholic countries of Europe was clearly higher than in the Protestant countries of the North. Now Italy's fertility rate is 1.2.

There seems to be no decisive difference between the religions. For example, in Iran, the fertility rate is only 1.5, and in the Persian Gulf countries, with the exception of Saudi Arabia and Oman, it is less than two. The decline has already started in the 1990s, and the Arab Spring has accelerated it.

Changing values. People simply don't want children, or at least they don't want them that young. When having children is postponed, the number of children will be lower. According to experts, the phenomenon is likely to be permanent.

World the lowest fertility is now in South Korea, where only 0.72 children are born per woman. It means that the population of South Korea will collapse rapidly.

South Korea has also charged hundreds of billions of euros to fix the situation, to no avail.

In East Asia, working life is hierarchical and competition is fierce. Working days are often nine hours or longer. At the same time, the division of labor in the family is very uneven, so having a child usually means that a woman becomes a housewife.

If the choice is either or, many give up starting a family altogether.

In South Korea, a year-long parental leave has been introduced, which can be used before the child turns eight, but the change is too slow. Fathers use only seven percent of their time off.

of Taiwan the fertility rate fell below the population renewal limit already in the 1990s.

Taiwan has introduced a six-month parental leave that now compensates for 80 percent of income. Parents have been given tax deductions and cash. The government even organizes – rather awkward-sounding – dating events.

Nothing has helped. The birth rate continues to fall. In Taiwan, only 1.27 children are born per woman.

However, the gift bunny was never tried, because Terry Gouta was not elected president.