Despite the predictions of a baby boom as we were locked in our Covid cocoons, Australia’s birth rate is at a record low according to demographer Simon Kuestenmacher.
Of course in past pandemics and in times of economic uncertainty, people have always had fewer, rather than more, kids.
But the Australian birth rate has fallen year after year for the last 12 years.
In fact, Simon explains in his article in The New Daily that today’s parents are older than ever compared to their parents and Aussies are having children 5 years later in life than their parents did.
In fact, half about half of all births in Australia are from mothers aged over 32.
Why are we having few kids?
Kuestenmacher explains:
It makes sense that couples end up having fewer children if they start having kids later in life.
There just isn’t enough time left to add more kids to the family.
A more highly educated female population (Australian women outperform men in primary, secondary and tertiary education) and a much higher female workforce participation rate are also linked to smaller families.
Add to this the freakishly high childcare costs, plus a housing affordability crisis, and it becomes obvious why having a large family is simply not an affordable option for most Australians.
- Also read:This week’s Australian Property Market Update – Latest Data, State by State April 23rd 2024
- Also read:Fastest growing cities in Australia 2024
- Also read:Auction clearance results April 20th – Mixed Weekend Auction Results Over School Holidays
- Also read:The latest Corelogic Rental Market Report
- Also read:Vacancy Rates Remained Steady at 1.0% | SQM Research
Do we really want a higher birth rate?
This leads us to a rather important question - do we actually want more babies?
Kuestenmacher explains:
The reason why a very low birth rate is often referred to as a demographic time bomb is the risk of living in an ageing society with a shrinking workforce.
This means an ever-shrinking pool of workers needs to finance the retirement of an ever-growing pool of retirees.
Demographically speaking, this is the most undesirable population profile.
However, Australia doesn’t rely on births to counter this undesirable trend. We can simply continue to import new workers through our skilled migration scheme.
Economically speaking, this might even be the wiser choice. People cost the state money from before the day they are born until the day they start paying taxes (they start costing the state money again once they retire).
It’s rather clever to grow a country’s population via migration rather than a natural increase (more births than deaths).
The costs of raising and educating migrants were carried by another nation.
International students, one in six of whom become permanent residents, even pay Australia massive fees for the privilege of being educated here.
Read more in the original article in The New Daily
