The number of babies born to teenagers in England and Wales has fallen to its lowest level in almost 70 years. 25,977 women aged under 20 had babies in 2014 – the fewest since 1946. (ONS/The Guardian)
On the other hand:
British parents are having more children than at any time since the 1970s. In 2013, 9.5% of babies born in the UK had three or more siblings – up from 5.3% in 2009. The EU average is 5.6%, falling to 3.1% in Italy and 2.6% in Spain. The rapid increase in Britain is thought to be due to the trend for wealthy parents to have larger families, and to rising levels of immigration, immigrant families tending to be larger). (Eurostat/The Times)
Is it just me, but, given the state of the world, what is the thought process young people go through when they decide to have three or more children? What are they letting the kids in for? Or am I being an old misanthrope? (Mind you, my own parents had me 6 months before the outbreak of World War II, and they, and I, survived).
It’s worth bearing in mind that Britain’s birth rate, like pretty much all of the rest of Europe, has a birth rate less than replacement level (it is 1.9 compared with the replacement level of 2.1). Our population would decline pretty soon if net migration was 0.
Having said that, I agree with you that the recent rise in British birth rates is bad. Perpetual population growth threatens our countryside with yet more overdevelopment, puts pressure on public services, contributes to climate change and increases house prices. Politicians should aim for our population to be stagnant- which can be achieved by (gradually and affordably) reducing child benefit and child tax credit, reducing net migration (while increasing the number of refugees although that is a separate issue), improving sex education, increasing availability of contraception, and increasing taxes on wealthy families. The final point, which you raise, is particularly important. I recently read a New York Times article which reported that for the first time, the birth rate amongst white people had surpassed blacks and Hispanics in Manhattan. This is a travesty because it is generally assumed that when people get richer, they have fewer children. This is mostly true, but there seem to be some exceptions. We ought to reform the tax code and welfare system to reflect this.