- Birth rates in Japan are falling faster than expected.
- 300,000 babies are estimated to have not been born in the US as a result of the pandemic.
- Economic uncertainty, migration restrictions and couples choosing to have smaller families are having a knock-on effect in the form of a global population decline.
- COVID-19 and declining global birthrates Japan is not the only country experiencing a reduction in births.
Economic uncertainty, migration limitations, and couples opting for smaller families are all having a negative impact on the world’s population as reported by We Forum.
Birthrate declining
According to projections from The Asahi Shimbun, Japan’s birthrate is declining at a faster rate than previously expected.
The Asian newspaper predicted that in 2021, Japan’s birth rates will fall to roughly 805,000, a figure not expected until 2028, using the health ministry’s calculating formula and preliminary birth figures.
Lowest records
The Japanese government announced last year that the number of births in 2020 would be 840,832, down 2.8% from the previous year and the lowest since records began in 1899.
“In comparison to pre-pandemic years, the number of marriages was likewise sluggish,” Takumi Fujinami, a senior chief analyst at Japan Research Institute Ltd, told The Asahi Shimbun.
According to Fujinami, “the number of births will continue to shrink in the long run” if more young people do not or cannot marry.
Lockdown and birthrates
Japan isn’t the only country where birth rates are declining. Taiwan, China, was discovered in 2021 to have the world’s lowest fertility rate, with an estimated 1.07 children per woman.
Lockdowns were predicted to generate a baby boom at the start of the pandemic, but worldwide economic instability had the reverse effect on birth rates. According to the Brookings Institute, this resulted in the deaths of 300,000 newborns in the United States.
Furthermore, due to tougher COVID-19-related border controls, Australia announced its first population loss since World War I in 2020.
Due to plummeting birth rates, China’s rigorous family planning laws were eased last year, with the government stating that couples can now have three children instead of one.
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Source: We Forum
