Britain needs a middle-class baby boom

A growing population is a blessing so long as everyone joins in, argues Melanie McDonagh By Melanie McDonagh

When I was born, I was, though I didn't know it at the time, part of the great Sixties baby boom. It was quite inescapable in Ireland. I was the sole only child in my class – everyone I knew came from families of around five. A proper big family had 12 children, which was the case with one friend of mine. When her grandmother was asked how many grandchildren there were now, she'd answer: "Twelve, at least last time I counted." It meant that, whenever you went to play in someone's house, you'd always find yourself being shushed up because you might wake the baby.

And you know what? It was good fun being around big families, even though those children were reared by mothers for whom family life was synonymous with hard labour. By definition, a society that has lots of children is fundamentally optimistic.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/comment/personal-view/6103250/Britain-needs-a-middle-class-baby-boom.html

Iran’s plummeting birth rates

Michael Cook

Despite its fundamentalist Islamic reputation Iran has experimented with birth control with some unexpected, and unwelcome, consequences. If demography is destiny, the family of Farzaneh Roudi is a snapshot of Iran’s past, present and future. A program director at the Population Reference Bureau in Washington DC, Ms Roudi was born in Iran. Her grandmother had 11 children, her father had 6 and she has 2.

http://www.mercatornet.com/articles/view/irans_plummeting_birth_rates/

Korea’s population crisis

Choi Seon-jeong

Korea is suffering from a national crisis of super-low fertility. The head of the Korean affiliate of Planned Parenthood explains why. The head of the Korean affiliate of the International Planned Parenthood Federation recently pleaded with his countrymen and women to have more children. Choi Seon-jeong, president of the Planned Population Federation of Korea, warned in the JoongAng Daily that his government must combat a "national crisis of super-low fertility", or Korea will disappear. MercatorNet asked him to explain how this has happened and how he proposes to increase birth rates. MercatorNet: The latest statistics show that the fertility rate in the Republic of Korea is one of the lowest in the world. You have described this as a "national crisis of super-low fertility". What do you fear will happen?

http://www.mercatornet.com/articles/view/koreas_population_crisis/

Demographic Bomb

Part two of Demographic Winter, Demographic Bomb came out June 29th. This movie features a video clip of Dr. J! Check it out here!

Changing Face of Motherhood: Who's Giving Birth?

Children Pay Consequences for Decline in Marriage

By Father John Flynn, LC
ROME, May 24, 2009 (Zenit.org).- The number of children born outside a stable married life continues to rise. Northern European countries have the highest levels of births to single women, but the United States is catching up.The latest figures come from a report published by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).According to the May Data Brief issued by the CDC's National Center for Health Statistics, births to unmarried women totaled 1,714,643 in 2007, 26% more than in 2002. As a result in 2007 nearly 4 in 10 births in the U.S. were to unmarried women.

http://www.zenit.org/article-25981?l=english

The World's New Numbers - A Different View On the World's Changing Demographics

Josh Friedeman, the Millennial Perspective

I may have gotten something very wrong. If not, then I am about to get it wrong. In the last week I have seen two enormously contradictory reports on the world's changing demographics. The first report - an attention-grabbing video comparing the dropping birthrates of the Western world with the exceedingly high birthrates of the Muslims - can be found in an earlier blog. Now I am going to share with you the second, more in-depth, and (hopefully) more accurate report. Martin Walker of The Wilson Quarterly writes this in an interesting article entitled The World's New Numbers:

http://www.onenewsnow.com/Blog/Default.aspx?id=516492

Aging Canadians: Preparing for an older Canada

By Derek Miedema, Researcher, Institute of Marriage and Family Canada

The numbers are in, and they’re crystal clear: Canada is growing older. We know that as the baby boomers are already turning 65, that generation will swell the ranks of seniors. Add to that the fact that each generation since the boomers has had fewer children and we end up with fewer family caregivers and many more aging parents in need of care.

http://www.imfcanada.org/article_files/E-Review-April%2022,%202009-for_print.pdf

Japan to workers: Go home and make babies

TOKYO, Japan (CNN) -- Even before one reaches the front door of Canon's headquarters in Tokyo, one can sense the virtual stampede of employees pouring out of the building exactly at 5:30 p.m. In a country where 12-hour workdays are common, the electronics giant has taken to letting its employees leave early twice a week for a rather unusual reason: to encourage them to have more babies.

Japan's birth rate of 1.34 is below the level needed to maintain the country's population. Continue...