Plunging birth rate a major cause for concern in Thailand

 

Picture: Daily News

 

A leader in the field of gynaecology and obstetrics in Bangkok has said that an alarming drop in the birth rate has to be addressed now.

 

With women having babies later in life or not at all there are big problems associated with an ageing population and lack of people in the workforce. 

 

A big rise in people giving birth to children with Down syndrome is also happening. 

 

Dr Kamthorn Phreuksananon of the Royal Thai College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists said that the birth rate had fallen below 600,000 newborns. 

 

The Total Fertility Rates - TFR - are now at 1.51 persons. 

 

The WHO and World Bank say that the figure needs to be at least 2.1 to avoid problems associated with ageing populations and lack of manpower in the workforce. 

 

Japan has experienced such problems, he said, after the birthrate there fell to 1.6. Now Thailand is even worse. 

 

The country used to have a birthrate of 5.1 but it has steadily decreased over the years.

 

Women are having babies later or not at all and now the situation is getting critical with little action. He warned that it would be at 1.3 in ten years if nothing is done. 

 

The number of children being born with Down syndrome is getting worse as a consequence.

 

Women under 35 have a 1 in 800 chance of giving birth to a baby with Downs syndrome. For over 35 it is 1 in 350. For over 40s it rises to 1 in a 100.

 

Daily News said that according to sources plans are afoot to increase allowances for people seeking fertility treatment as a means of boosting the birthrate among those who are having difficulty conceiving.

 

 

Source: Daily News

 

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Looks like migrant workers will be in demand for higher paying jobs.  Looking like India, Japan, and S. Korea will also need to supply workers into the IT infrastructure as well as engineer's and such from Europe, the west and other countries.  But then this only my opinion, who knows maybe Covid times will produce a Baby boom here in Thailand.  Saw many pregnant Thai ladies when I visited the Hospital the other day.

In a country as small as Thailand and with a population of approx 68 million I cant see the problem, even why they need to import foreign labor from neighboring countries. There is obviously a problem with the local population and their work ethic!

And the next topic in my overview is: “Thai road carnage: A motorcyclist is killed every 30 minutes in Thailand”

So not only a low birthrate but was is left gets killed...

I feel the problem is less one of fertility and more one about finance. Raising kids is not cheap and many Thais have worked out that none, one or two is better for them than half a dozen hungry mouths to feed.

I suspect the team did not visit our area in North East Isaan, babies abound here.

23 minutes ago, webfact said:

 

Japan has experienced such problems, he said, after the birthrate there fell to 1.6. Now Thailand is even worse. 

Old stats., Japan is now 1.368, and to compound the problem I understand they have a downer on immigration.

 

3 minutes ago, darksidedog said:

I feel the problem is less one of fertility and more one about finance. Raising kids is not cheap and many Thais have worked out that none, one or two is better for them than half a dozen hungry mouths to feed.

Indeed, my SOs sister and her husband had one, they put her through college and she's now a lawyer; no way a couple of relatively poor farmers would've done that with a horde to feed, clothe, and educate (even basic schooling here costs).

31 minutes ago, webfact said:

He warned that it would be at 1.3 in ten years if nothing is done. 

Let the tourists back.

Seriously

Provide proper income support to women who have children. maybe on a sliding scale say 20 yo 100%, 30 yo 60%, 40 yo 40% to encourage them to have babies younger, and a reverse scale on numbers of children, more the merrier.

Prople prefer to spend their money on iPhones, cars, condos and shopping binges at Central. Only to wake up in their late 40s with a completely empty life. 

It seems odd that as a middle-income developing country, Thailand has hit this issue, typically faced by developed countries, so early.

I imagine this is going to create some significant socio-economic pressures in due course, if not already.

 

Looking at some stats, a marked birthrate downtrend started in the late 60s and has just about bottomed out by 2021.

Thailand sits amongst mostly advanced nations with a rate of 1.5, Vietnam and Malaysia are running at a birthrate of 2.0, and Laos/Cambodia/PP & Indonesia are all 2.3-2.7.

 

In short, I see this major misalignment as a symptom of a wider failing (or failed?) socio-economic plan over the last 20 years, if not longer.

 

I am willing to help any young Thai ladies with their problem.

16 minutes ago, stereolab said:

I suspect the team did not visit our area in North East Isaan, babies abound here.

The article said low birthrate, not zero birthrate. My earlier experiences in poorer countries is that it is the rural poor that have the higher birthrate. Kids basically are their insurance policy for old age.

 

But even here in north east Issan, (yes I live here too) there are few kids around for the size of population.

 

There are two junior schools close by and there's talk of closing one of them and combining resources because there is no longer enough pupils to justify having both open.

17 minutes ago, RotBenz8888 said:

Prople prefer to spend their money on iPhones, cars, condos and shopping binges at Central. Only to wake up in their late 40s with a completely empty life. 

Why would life be empty without having Children.  Some people relish the idea of a kid free environment.

1 minute ago, ThailandRyan said:

Why would life be empty without having Children.  Some people relish the idea of a kid free environment.

I could not contemplate being without mine. They may all be 6,000 miles away, but we are connected emotionally and lovingly in ways that are difficult to explain to anyone without children.  Interestingly, that is not yet shared by those 3 kids of mine for themselves, who have yet to produce a Grandchild. They just need to get a grip, concentrate on the task in hand and try harder! 

18 minutes ago, realfunster said:

It seems odd that as a middle-income developing country, Thailand has hit this issue, typically faced by developed countries, so early.

Not odd at all, whenever you give women a free choice, they choose not to breed with us.

Abortion + contraception = racial suicide.

Any country with more socialist policies including social programs will not have this issue. A past example, Eastern/Western Germany.

Normal transition under way from 3rd world to struggling 2nd. The Western world made this transition in the 50s & 60s, as modern contraception became available & acceptable.

 

Nothing surprising here. Modernity slowly edging in, even to Thailand. And even here amongst the peasants! The economic effect is to assist the transition from 5 men & a dog to 1 man + machine. Or even a woman & a machine!

46 minutes ago, KhunKenAP said:

I am willing to help any young Thai ladies with their problem.

Making babies isn't the problem. It's the 20-25 years of financial support that comes with each child that problem deters many couples, not to mention the fact that a lot of men here simply walk away from the family when they get fed up/times get tough. Raising a child alone is no laughing matter when there's practically zero support or legal recourse.

57 minutes ago, RotBenz8888 said:

Prople prefer to spend their money on iPhones, cars, condos and shopping binges at Central. Only to wake up in their late 40s with a completely empty life. 

Absolute rubbish. I and a few others I know didn't have kids, are well over late 40s and have full lives. I made a lot of mistakes in my life, but not having kids was not one of them.

Now that western children don't normally support their parents in old age, but send them off to rot in old folks home, there is no need to have lots of kids any more.

 

The world is overpopulated. If workers are needed in one country they can be imported, and there are millions wanting to do so.

I find this thread hilarious, plunging birth rate, ha, many young local girls around here are certainly doing the opposite, babies abound around here.????

1 hour ago, realfunster said:

It seems odd that as a middle-income developing country, Thailand has hit this issue, typically faced by developed countries, so early.

I imagine this is going to create some significant socio-economic pressures in due course, if not already.

 

Looking at some stats, a marked birthrate downtrend started in the late 60s and has just about bottomed out by 2021.

Thailand sits amongst mostly advanced nations with a rate of 1.5, Vietnam and Malaysia are running at a birthrate of 2.0, and Laos/Cambodia/PP & Indonesia are all 2.3-2.7.

 

In short, I see this major misalignment as a symptom of a wider failing (or failed?) socio-economic plan over the last 20 years, if not longer.

 

IMO nothing to do with a socio economic plan, but everything with women controlling their fertility and choosing not to go through pregnancy and childbirth. If men had to bear the kids, IMO there would be no more than one child born to them. I've seen plenty of births during my training and it's really painful, not to forget that pregnancy is dangerous to one's health.

The better educated a woman is and the more able to get a well paying job, the less likely, IMO, she is to have more than one or two children, no matter how much governments want them to.

I don't blame them for not wanting to have children.

1 hour ago, darksidedog said:

I feel the problem is less one of fertility and more one about finance. Raising kids is not cheap and many Thais have worked out that none, one or two is better for them than half a dozen hungry mouths to feed.

That's just modernity speaking. To raise kids you need X,Y and Z products and services, which is gonna cost a lot of money so you better hope you get a raise. Thais are on the same dead end path as the West now. It'll be curious how this all ends.

i am opening a fertility clinic in my house here in Hua Hin.

 

just need a larger waiting room. 

 

 

Overpopulation of the world should be the main concern of governments worldwide. Not the national birth rate. A lower birth rate means women choosing the life they want. And hopefully less teen pregnancies. Less children means more income left for spending. Means a possibility of higher taxes rates. And more tax money can mean an increase in wellbeing of older people, better health care, etc.

I can help revers super fast, that just stop quarantine and remove bar Fines...release the hounds!

1 hour ago, ThailandRyan said:

Why would life be empty without having Children.  Some people relish the idea of a kid free environment.

On the relatively few occasions I have to think about children ( usually when seeing some young miscreants causing a problem ) I thank the deity that I managed to avoid having any.

When I was young I assumed I would as that was what normally happened when one got married ( no oral contraceptives back then ), but I managed to avoid marriage till decades later, and nice girls didn't, as they didn't want to get pregnant. I did live with a woman that already had kids and they certainly put me off any desire to have some of my own.

8 minutes ago, mike787 said:

I can help revers super fast, that just stop quarantine and remove bar Fines...release the hounds!

You assume bargirls don't know what condoms are for.

Start educating people properly; give them stable employment with decent wages that they can use to buy a nice home and eat properly and then you may well find the birth rate will increase.  Not Rocket Science !

From Wikipedia 

Global human population growth amounts to around 83 million annually, or 1.1% per year. The global population has grown from 1 billion in 1800 to 7.8 billion in 2020. It is expected to keep growing, and estimates have put the total population at 8.6 billion by mid-2030, 9.8 billion by mid-2050 and 11.2 billion by 2100.

Urbanization.

 

Mechanization has substantially reduced the need for farm labor in rural Thailand, so everyone's got to go to the big city to find work.

 

The mother stays home in the countryside while hubby works in Bangkok? The guy lives in a shoe box or dormitory like housing with only rare conjugal visits, and has to send half his paycheck back home to support his wife and kid(s) who are practically strangers? Wife has to live hand-to-mouth to get by on the measly remittance her hubby sends every month, never sure whether it will arrive next month?

 

Husband and wife go to Bangkok together, leaving the kids back in the village? Kids barely recognize the parents when they come back home once or twice a year? Kids raised by relatives who typically sleepwalk through childcare duties? Living in squalid housing down in Bangkok which is all they can afford because 3-5,000 baht per month per kid has to be sent back to the village to cover childcare costs?

 

Couple stays in the village and "works the farm", scrapes by doing odd jobs and side hustles?  Many do just this, but nowadays more kids means lower standard of living with no payoff down the road in terms of future help working the farm. In the past, a large family was practically a requirement in rural Thailand just to ensure you'd have enough labor to work the farm. But have a ton of kids these days, four out of five of them will be forced to leave for the big city to find work, because there's no demand for their labor in the village.

 

Doesn't sound like a lot of fun to me, and my suspicion is that it doesn't sound like a lot of fun to many young couples in Thailand either.