Jim Penman explains why birth rates are collapsing across the developed world. South Korea's fertility rate is 0.8 children per woman. The result: aging populations with too few young workers to support the elderly and care for them.
Israel
About 0.8 (children per woman)
Eastern Europe and East Asia (specifically Japan, China, South Korea)
Well below replacement level (except Israel)
Well, they're going down all over the world. All the OECD countries are well below replacement level, except for Israel which is just slightly above. And that's largely because of the Muslims there and also because of the ultra orthodox. But it's a problem generally. Eastern Europe is particularly bad and the worst cases of all are in East Asia. Japan, China, now South Korea. South Korea is about 0.8 first for women. It's about a third of what's necessary to replace the population. So these countries are just dying? Well, there's problems. I mean, overpopulation is one thing, but the problem if you stop having children, eventually your society will die. Now if that's something that you want to have happen, then I can't argue with that. But I think our societies, our solutions are worth preserving. The other problem too is when you have a rapidly shrinking birth rate, you have more and more old people attempting to be supported by less and less working age people. And that's bad for, well, it's bad for the economy, but it's also bad people who can't get care. For example, who's going to look after all the elderly when there's no more children, there's no more young people around.
Rising mental illness and falling birth rates have the same cause, it is this.....
