Across East Asia, societies are becoming richer, healthier and more educated, yet fewer people feel able or willing to have families and raise children. Low fertility plagues high-income societies, particularly in East Asia, where the total fertility rate (TFR) has fallen below one birth per woman, well under the replacement level of 2.1 births. While many countries have dedicated considerable resources and effort to reversing this trend, the results have been somewhat disappointing. The pairing...
India may be the world’s most populous country, with 1.42 billion people and challenges like high youth unemployment, but powerful allies of Prime Minister Narendra Modi are championing larger families to counter a declining fertility rate. Even though the United Nations projects India’s population would keep rising for about four decades, peaking at around 1.7 billion, some policymakers and Hindu groups say the shift away from smaller families should begin now, including through government...
With the Total Fertility Rate in the State falling below the national rate of 1.9, the government is considering financial incentives for larger families as part of its long-term strategy to ensure workforce availability and economic sustainability