Just a reminder for those who say populations in decline are not aware of the issue. The Japanese press has been warning of demographic decline since 1990. In that year the Japanese press reported the “1.57 shock” when TFR for 1989 was reported at just 1.57. It is 1.2 today.

Births in Spain dropped to just 322,075 in 2023. By far the lowest ever recorded. Even with Spain’s large levels of immigration (particularly from Latin America) this is unsustainable. The Canada of Europe (lowest low TFR and mass immigration). https://t.co/yBP3RZWaEJ

Austrian births fall to just 77,296 in 2023. This is the lowest registered number since 2009. TFR also on track to be the lowest in Austrian history at just 1.30. https://t.co/EdBp5YvTvo

France registered 678,000 births last year. That is the lowest level since the Second World War. January 2024 births are also down against January 2023 (but only by ~1.1%). TFR ~1.67 in 2023 & could go as low as 1.65 this year (still higher than US TFR).

https://t.co/E4FbxG2xjV

Romanian births fell to just 155,390 in 2023. That is the lowest number in ~145 years. The Romanian fertility rate fell to below 1.5 for the first time in a decade. https://insse.ro/cms/ro/tags/comunicat-miscarea-naturala-populatiei

Thai births down a whopping 10% in the January-February 2024 reporting period vs the same time last year! Thai TFR on track to be below 1.0 in 2024.
https://stat.bora.dopa.go.th/stat/statnew/statMONTH/statmonth/#/mainpage

Births in Belarus were as low as 65,000 in 2023. This is by far the lowest level ever recorded and represents a significant demographic capitulation likely driven, at least in part,by large levels of emigration amongst the country’s young (24-35) population.

https://euroradio.fm/en/another-anti-birth-rate-record-set-belarus

2023 was an awful year for Albania demographically. Births fell to just 22,210, the lowest ever recorded. This is also a drop of around 10% from 2022. 2023 TFR likely hit lowest low of just under 1.30.

https://t.co/r285ZLDBUB

In 2023 Belgium registered only 110,404 births. The lowest number since World War II. The drop was sharpest in immigrant heavy Brussels which was three times greater than the country as a whole. Births in the Flemish Region held up with only 2.3% drop.

https://t.co/99FsYhpGct

Netherlands appears to have started rebounding with births up 3+% in January 2024. After a 2023 which saw the second lowest number of births since 1900. Dutch TFR also fell to an all time low below 1.45 last year.

https://t.co/Uy50mtjj5x

Worthwhile interview on NPR about 2024 Dragon births in China. They interviewed a pregnant woman & one putting off childbearing. Govt is obviously trying to encourage former+discourage the latter. This year will show if real bounce back is possible.

https://www.npr.org/2024/02/21/1232827276/more-babies-are-usually-born-in-china-during-the-year-of-dragon-but-thats-changi

As of 2022 of all European countries tiny Iceland (population only~388,000) had the best native born fertility rate at 1.82 (which has fallen since then and is likely sub 1.6 now). The next highest are Bulgaria & Romania at the not fantastic 1.66 level (Romani TFR boosts it).

France, Romania and Bulgaria saw their TFR fall considerably in 2023. France is now below 1.7, Romania below 1.5, Czechia below 1.5, & Bulgaria (which was actually 1.78 in 2022) now at, a still very good but lower, 1.7.

Urban East Asia crushes fertility like no other. The wrong kind of high density. Instead of low rise garden style with a good work life balance it is often huge 50+ unit buildings coupled with an aggressive 60 plus hour workweek. It’s not a mystery why TFR is at historic lows.

https://x.com/nonebusinesshey/status/1762678077338108091?s=46&t=B6SI6l_x92DNtJLTXcHuzw

Numbers of foreign workers in Poland rapidly increasing. The number of foreigners registered in Poland’s social insurance system (known as ZUS) rose 6% last year to reach 1.13 million. Immigrants now make up almost 7% of all those in the system.

https://t.co/o9kjsUhV0Z

The national groups with the largest rise in numbers in 2023 were Belarusians (21,264) & Ukrainians (13,407). They were followed by Indians (4,588), Colombians (3,535), Nepalese (3,481), Filipinos (2,870), Uzbeks (2,026), Turks (1,783), Bangladeshis (1,770) & Indonesians (1,759).

The Dragon Year started in February 2024. If February/March sees the downturn continue or worsen this will be our first indication that China has moved away from Dragon Years being big birth years. An absolutely massive development & we will know one way or another pretty soon.

https://x.com/mark57758864153/status/1766411435582669176?s=46&t=4B1VZvcCmqy_LsZnd1cuig

Hungarian births have not exceeded 100,000 since 1997. Their Generation Z & Alpha are the smallest generations in Hungarian history. Even if Hungary manages to get TFR to 1.8 by 2030 and keep it there (a big if) births won’t exceed 100K again. For comparison there were 194,200 births in 1975 & more than 127,000 as recently as 1991.

The Hungarian government has also been extremely attentive to the issue which is why its inability to dramatically increase births has been such a frustration. However, under Orban TFR jumped from 1.23 in 2011 to 1.6 in 2021 before falling back to 1.5 in 2023.

Without the Hungarian government’s pronatalist policies of the 2010s the demographic situation would have almost certainly been even worse. The point of this thread is just to point out how difficult it is to turn births around even when you throw so much at the problem.

Most importantly it is not just a money issue but a cultural issue. Hungary has tried to create a more pro child culture but the urban (Budapest) youth never bought into Orban’s ideas. For such policies to work you need buy in across society to be truly successful.

Emigration of young Hungarian women (particularly those born in the early 1990s) also hurt Hungarian attempts to turn around the demographic situation greatly.

In the United States Generation Alpha (aka Polars born 2013-present) will likely be the first since Gen X to not have even one year of births above 4 million. In fact births were below 3.6 million last year for the first time since 1979 when the population was below 225 million.