Declining Birth Rates of Italy

Italy, as we all know, is the world center of theCatholic Church. Strangely, in spite of its deep-rootedCatholic culture and tradition, it has today changed intoa nation having the second lowest birth rates in Europe,next only to Spain. At 1.2 per woman that means onechild per woman, according to Global Agenda Magazine.

It was brought out in an article in April 2004 in theSunday Telegraph that Swedens Birth rate was close toItalys though 50% higher. In order to arrest thissituation, the Italian Government started offering 1,000euros to every woman who had a second child.

Other traditionally Catholic nations, like Ireland andFrance, have the highest and second highest birth ratesin Europe. Even Sweden has a 50% higher birth rate incomparison to Italy. These increased numbers may be dueto better government-controlled child and health carefacilities as well as incentives for families that havemore children.

Ireland and France, on the other hand, other traditionallyCatholic countries, have the first and second highest birthrates in Europe. These numbers may be explained by moregenerous government-funded child and health care andbenefits for families that have children.

It is a cause of concern that this trend will result inhaving a large number of people who are old and there areonly a few people contributing gainfully to the society.This situation is likely in countries like Russia, Japan,Italy and other eastern European countries. Thisphenomenon of low birth rates is being studied by peoplewho study social and public policy in Europe.

They believe that in the past, having children was a wayof investing in ones old age security. This meant thatif one had more children he had more hands to help withfarming and the family business as well as more people totake care of him in his old age. With the introduction ofpension systems where you pay for your own futuresecurity, the older people have become less dependent ontheir children for their financial needs and this has hada major impact on birth rates.

They also feel that since people have to pay higher taxesto support these kinds of social programmes, they havelower disposable incomes and less money to meet theexpenses of bringing up more children.

Another cause for the declining birth rate is the factthat more women are working full-time during theirchildbearing years. Child-care programmes of differentcountries vary. For example, Norway has better financialand infrastructure facilities as compared to Italy.Norwegian day-care centers are government funded andmothers have the option to work part-time, withoutaffecting their position at work. They also get longermaternity leave.

It is important to seriously start thinking as to how thepeople of today in Italy will be supported when they growold. Nevertheless this problem of low birth rate isdefinitely better than the problem that comes with veryhigh population growth.

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