Suffer the little children (2000 р.с.) Most of the rich world is short of babies

In Germany a mother who neglects her children is known as raven’s mother. Many Germans slap that label on women with small children who go out to work. Young women in Ger many, as elsewhere, are torn. They enjoy their jobs but find it hard to combine them with having a family, for a host of practical reasons such as school hours and lack of child care as well as public disapproval. Faced with that dilemma, some give up work. Others give up having children. About a quarter of the current generation of German women in their 40s have re mained childless. The country’s fertility rate (the number of children a woman can expect to have in her lifetime) is now a rock-bottom 1.3 – the same as in Japan and Italy, where similar attitudes prevail.

This is not just because children are nice to have. As almost everybody lives ever longer, a reasonable supply of young peo ple is needed to counterbalance growing number of old er folk. In fact, fertility rates have dropped steeply in all OECD countries in the past few decades,

from an average of 3.2 chil dren per woman in 1960 to 1.6 now. The rate needed to keep the population stable is 2.1. According to the UN’s latest population estimates, fertility is currently below replacement level in over 70 countries, which account for nearly half the world’s population. But even in the re maining, poorer, half of the world, fertility rates have come down from 5.2 in 1970-75 to 2.6 now. This has been the most important factor taking into account ageing of populations around the world. In a few countries where fertility rates are already very low, such as Japan and South Korea, they are still falling.

One reason why there are fewer ba bies is that women everywhere are marry ing and having children much later in life. Between 1970 and 2000 the mean age at which women had their first child rose by more than a year every decade, and many more women now have their families in their 30s. The question is whether they have the same number of children as before but lat er, or whether they will have fewer overall.

An economic expert on fertility policy considers some of them now give birth in their 40s. If the children do not start arriving until later in life, there is less time to reach that ideal number. And once people have got used to smaller families, the number of children they want shrinks too. Demographers talk about a «low-fertility trap».

Postponing marriage and childbirth is part of a bigger change in the lives of many women in rich countries. Over the past few decades many more of them have been getting more highly educated and taking paid jobs. That changed their ideas about what they wanted out of life. For a while birth rates were lower in countries where lots of women worked outside the home. In a modern society children are an economic liability, not an asset. They have to be fed, clothed, housed, and looked after, educated and entertained. Economists reckon that a family with one child needs 30% more income than a childless couple to maintain the same living standard. The obvious way to keep the household financially afloat is for the mother to go out to work. But more recently that trend has been reversed: higher fertility and higher employment rates for women go together.

If governments want to rejuvenate their populations, they can help in a number of ways. It does not put 3-4% of GDP on direct benefits to families, far more than do Germany, Japan and southern Europe.

Notes:

to suffer — терпеть replacement — замещение,
to be short of — иметь недостаток в воспроизводство
raven — ворон mean — средний
to tear — критиковать to shrink — сокращать
to give up — отказаться to postpone — откладывать
rock-bottom — самый низкий birth rate — уровень рождае-
aging — старение мости
reasonable — разумный liability — необходимость
to counterbalance — уравновеши- afloat — на плaву
вать to rejuvenate — омолаживать

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