Hungary is ahead of the curve on population policy

Jan 27, 2020 by

by Ed West, UnHerd:

2020 may be the year that the population problem becomes a political issue. Not the world’s growing population, which is confined almost entirely to sub-Saharan Africa, but the rapidly shrinking population and birth rate around the world.

Just on Friday the Ukrainian government apparently admitted that their population was in fact several million smaller than the world had previously believed.

Ukraine’s fertility rate is below 1.5 children per woman, which means that the population will half within two generations. On top of this, over 4.5 million Ukrainians work abroad, which is more than one-quarter of its working-age population; the largest contingent is in Poland, where they have replaced the huge numbers of Poles who have moved to Britain.

All over eastern Europe demography is reaching a crisis point, as low fertility and emigration empty towns and villages.

Moldova, Europe’s poorest country, cannot remain a ‘viable state’ if the current trends continue, and over the next 15 years will shrink by 22.38%. Medical services are especially affected in countries like Romania, where doctors have fled to the west.

But this problem is not just confined to the East; Italy is, in many ways, dying, strangled by the euro and by a succession of corrupt governments. Its people are not having families, and it’s losing its best people. Anyone who’s worked in financial services will know that London is filled with highly-skilled and intelligent Italians; great for London, but what about Italy?

US fertility is also collapsing, while China will get old before it gets rich, as the saying goes.

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