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

Europe's demographic and cultural time bomb

Carolyn Moynihan

In Brussels, the top seven boys names recently were Mohamed, Adam, Rayan, Ayoub, Mehdi, Amine and Hamza. Mohamed is also the most popular name in Holland’s four biggest cities. Is anyone surprised?

Perhaps not, but a recent London Telegraph article suggests, with a certain note of alarm, that a “Muslim Europe” is emerging while policy-makers refuse to discuss the potential problems of this “demographic time bomb”. It reminds one a bit of Inspector Clouseau avowing, “It is not my Behm.”

http://www.mercatornet.com/demography/view/europes_demographic_and_cultural_time_bomb/

Demographic Bomb - the movie that says demography is destiny

Andrea Mrozek

What should we make of a movie claiming the human family is headed for decline?

When World Population Day came and went on July 11, it was with all the requisite fear mongering about there being too many people on the globe. [1] This accepted view—the fear of people falling off the globe causing grave environmental damage even as they go— is not true. Under population is in fact likely the more pressing problem in our future, not merely in rich industrialized countries, but everywhere. This sounds so foreign as to be false, which is evidence of the ubiquity and success of Malthus and his modern followers— those who believe societal ills could be staved off were there only fewer people on the planet.

http://www.mercatornet.com/articles/view/review_demographic_bomb_-_the_movie_the_says_demography_is_destiny/

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

Think family, not soul-mate, Singapore tells singles

Carolyn Moynihan
Singapore’s National Family Council is pushing the boundaries of taste somewhat in its latest effort to promote marriage and family life, but the island nation’s dismal fertility rate of 1.09 children per woman helps explain why.

As part of its Think Family campaign the council is running a competition for the “most imperfect-perfect couple” (prize: romantic getaway) and an ad in which a widow pays a funny/sad tribute to her deceased husband’s “imperfections” at his funeral. A trifle crass, but evidently a necessary wake-up call for Singapore singles waiting too long for the perfect mate to turn up.

http://www.mercatornet.com/family_edge/view/think_family_not_soul_mate_singapore_tells_singles/

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

Mercatornet.com's new blog

I'm certain that readers of the Ruth blog will find Mercator's blog equally as interesting:
http://www.mercatornet.com/demography/

Birth report bodes poorly for children, society

Pete Chagnon - OneNewsNow

A spokeswoman from Concerned Women for America says the findings outlined in a new report on U.S. births in 2007 highlight a disturbing trend in American society.

http://www.onenewsnow.com/Culture/Default.aspx?id=458082

More German babies again last year

by Carolyn Moynihan

Germany’s Family Minister, Ursula von der Leyen, is happy to report that the number of babies born has increased for the second year in a row. From a 60-year low of 673,000 in 2006, births increased to 685,000 in 2007 and 690,000 last year. At 1.4, Germany’s birth rate is one of the lowest in western Europe.

Continue...

Not your mother’s birth rate

by Carolyn Moynihan

New Zealand demographers are scratching their heads over an increase in young women having babies. The proportion of girls aged 15 to 19 giving birth rose for the sixth year in a row in 2008, Statistics NZ reported, and the agency’s top demographer, Mansoor Khawaja, said young women appeared to be refusing to follow their mothers’ decisions to have few children later in life. “I reckon they just don’t agree with their mothers, which is not uncommon,” he said. The mothers of the baby-boomers had roughly four children on average, but the boomers have ended up with less than two children each, he pointed out.

Continue...

Economics for a Crowded Planet: Which One would that be?

Jeffrey Sachs evidently believes the earth is overcrowded. I can't believe I'm reading this. His book is called: Common Wealth: Economics for a Crowded Planet. Which one is the crowded planet?

Sachs presents “four compelling reasons why the poorest countries need to speed the demographic transition,” “a list of seven requirements to enable family planning programs to accelerate the decline in fertility."

He has missed out on the news, even supported by the United Nations, that underpopulation is likely to be the big new problem on the horizon, not overpopulation.
To be fair, I am only quoting from a review in the NYT, and have not read the book itself. I'm not likely to, unless somebody pays me. Life is too short.