Birth Rates Linked to Maternity Support
The New York Times Magazine features a must read which discusses some of the disturbing declining birth rate trends seen in some European countries.
Laviano, Italy now features one of the better maternity support programs in Italy. The town will pay you about $15,000 for the birth of a new baby and the program seems to be working. The town houses about 1600 people with capacity for 3,000. Hence, the reason for the birth program. In fact, Italy has one of the lowest birth rates in Europe and the world with 1.33 birth rates per women. The article states that the entire continent is behind the replacement rate 2.1 children per women.
The article notes:
“Demographers and economists foresee that 30 million Europeans of working age will ‘disappear’ by 2050. At the same time, retirement will be lasting decades as the number of people in their 80s and 90s increases dramatically.”
One demographer told Fertility Blog, “It’s like a business. As people get older, they produce less revenue for the economy. At the same time, they’re an increasing expense. Businesses can’t work that way and neither can societies.”
One more important thing we would like to point out. Scandinavian countries have one the highest birth rates per child-bearing age women of 1.8. This could be easily explained by the generous programs in countries such as Norway which guarantee 54 weeks of maternity leave and about $6300 upon the birth of a child.
