The Birth Rate in Developed Countries Is Declining Research

Name
University
Course
Instructor
Date
The Birth Rate in Developed Countries Is Declining
Introduction
According to the report that was released by the United Nations in the year 2015, it was shown that the birth rate in developed countries like the United States, Germany, France, British, and Italy is declining at an alarming rate. Currently in those developed countries, most women are equally educated just like men are and this has enabled them to get some good jobs that have made them to become independent. According to Yew 2012, due to the fact that women in developed countries are no longer socially or economically dependent on men has radically altered the lifestyle of young people. For this reason, women can now decide get married or remain single, or get married only they feel that men will add value to their lives or better still when they desire to bare children. According to experts, there are different causes for the declining of the birth rate in the developed countries and its possible impact on the socio-economic development if the trend is not checked.
This essay examines declining birth rate in developed countries and the causes of the declining birth rate and its effects on the socio-economic development if the trend continues.
Causes of Declining Birth Rate in Developed Countries
Economists have warned that if the current birth rate that is currently being experienced in the developed countries is left unchecked, and then the future of those countries could be hanging by a thread. There are different reason that has led to the declining birth rate in the developed countries like the United States and other European countries. According to experts, the reproduction rate that is capable of keeping the population stable in developed countries should be at 2.1, while almost half of the world’s birth rate is currently lower than that. According to the census in the United States in the year 2010, it was shown that in 31.4 million Americans are living alone of which 27% of them are from the households. The fertility rate in the Western European countries is below the replacement rate of 2.1. To be precise in Germany the replacement rate is at 1.4, and Netherlands it is 1.8 and Belgium is 1.8. The following are some of the causes of the declining birth rates in the developed countries (Yew 2012).
Late Marriages
The issues of delaying getting married are mostly with women who are highly educated and are economically empowered. According to Yew 2012, most women are deciding to either put off getting married. Delaying to get married mostly lowers the fertility rate of women as they are limited with issues of menopause. The problem of either women getting married late or deciding to remain single is a huge problem in most of the developed countries. As a matter of facts, 44.2 percent of the Singaporean men and 31.0 percent of women aged between 30 and 34 are single. Marriage rates in the year 2011 has fallen in the below 30 years, with the large number of them are those ones who are between the age of 25 and 29 years old. Due to these reasons, the number of children being annually in these countries would be declining significantly (Coale and Hoover 2015).
Decision to Bare Children
Decision to have or not to have children is a decision that can only be made by the couples themselves. Despite the fact that the decision to have children is a personal decision, it has got a far reaching effect on the population of the country. The fact that women are highly educated, this has seen them being economically empowered to an extent that they don’t see the meaning of them getting married. The empowerment of women has significantly altered the social behavior and led to late marriages. Most women have got different views concerning of children. Different experts have pointed out that if women decide to put off baring children until when they are at their mid 30s, their chances of having fewer children is very high (Yew 2012).
Greater Access of Contraception by Women
It is true that the birth rate in the developed countries is declining at a alarming rate because there is increased access to contraceptive devices and drugs that are mostly being used by women to avoid conceiving during sexual intercourse. For instance there are birth control pills that can be used to avoid conceiving during the sexual intercourse. Most women in the developed countries are of the argument that they are so occupied at their different workplaces that they that they would not want to have more children that would inconvenient them with their jobs. These are some of the reasons that have led to the declining of birth rate in the developed countries (Lesthaeghe 2015).