Demographic time bombs: 10 countries that are faced with low fertility rates

Gayatri Vinayak

14 June 2021 at 5:09 am

Taiwan:

The country with one of the lowest birth rates in the world, Taiwan registered a record low of 1,65,249 births in 2020. Taiwan’s total fertility rate (TFR) is just 1.07 children per woman. This is a huge and marked change from the 1950s when women had around 7 children and much below the 2.1 replacement rate needed to maintain the population.

A major reason for the low fertility rate is the staggeringly high cost of living, where expenses have risen while wages have remained the same.

The Government has been incentivising citizens to have more children though. In Taiwan, citizens receive 2,500 NT per month per birth (around Rs 6,500) until the child is five years old, while in Taipei, they receive a lump sum of NT 20,000 (Rs 52,500).

Mothers are also provided stipends from the labour bureau if they are working or through the national pension scheme, if they are not.

Image credit: (Photo by An Rong Xu/Getty Images)

Rating agency Moody’s has said that China’s recent policy decision of allowing families to have up to three children could help support fertility, but would not dramatically change its birth rate. China announced its decision to allow families to have up to three children days after the country’s census data showed that its population growth had slipped to its lowest rate since the 1950s.

The country's one-child policy, introduced in 1980 to restrict population growth, was relaxed in 2016 to allow for two children. That has not made much of a difference though - with the high cost involved in raising children, not many couples are opting for a second child.

In 2020, 1.2 crore babies were born in China. This is a fall of 18 per cent from 2019, which saw 1.465 crore births. The total fertility rate (TFR) of childbearing women was 1.3 as per data released by the Country’s National Bureau of Statistics. The TFR is the average number of children, women in a given country are expected to have during their childbearing years.

The country’s falling birth rate and rapidly greying working population are posing a social and economic problem. This is also a major reason why the country decided to drop its previous rigid family planning measures and look at economic and social measures to help couples have more children.

With this low rate, China also joins a list of countries that are at risk of becoming demographic time bombs with a large ageing population and a slowing youth population.

We take a look at countries with the lowest fertility rates:

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