Babies R Us: Italian women shun 'mamma' role
A new focus in Europe has arisen concerning their fertility rate. Apparently EU women just don't want kids, resulting in a fertility rate less than the required 2.1 per woman (2 kids per 2 parents + an extra 0.1 for infant mortality).
Ireland: 1.99Before you get too excited about the US being number one, you should know that our birth rate is higher than Europe's at 2.1335, but that's the highest its been in years and "an NPG demographic analysis of age distribution, fertility, and mortality data shows that if there had been no immigration to the U.S. since 1990, the population in 2000 would have been 262 million–19 million less than the 281 million counted. Thus, post-1990 immigrants and their children accounted for 61 percent of population growth during the last decade."
France: 1.90
Norway: 1.81
Sweden 1.75
UK: 1.74
Netherlands: 1.73
Germany: 1.37
Italy: 1.33
Spain: 1.32
Greece: 1.29
Perhaps our abstinence only education is to blame for the low birth rate.
Damn George Bush for his incredibly effective teen abstinence programs.
For more information on abstinence-only education head to the Union of Concerned Scientists. Not to be confused with the Insternational Society of Mad Scientists.
Now, for the bonus prize: Which country has the highest birth rate?
1 comment:
Actually, the more interesting issue this raises is the effect on the ethnic and political demographics of America (and Europe). Many argue that if current trends continue, the college-educated liberal appears to be heading the way of the dinosaur. Well, at least the way of the Outnumberedasauras.
Personally, I don't buy that argument (on at least political demographics). For a more elegant response than I can give, check Crooked Timber out. Still, it never hurts to prepare just in case. Seriously, it's the reason the I want to have more kids in my future than I originally did. As egotistical as it sounds, I'd be a heck of a lot happier if more people out there were raised with my values.
Post a Comment