For this reason, the world’s population is still growing, while population growth has stagnated or even reversed in many countries. This explains why there can be simultaneously concerns about “too many” people and “too few” people.
Fears of “too few” people are particularly virulent in Eastern Europe, where low fertility rates are compounded by high levels of emigration. As a result, population numbers have declined, in some cases by over 25% since the early 1990s.
While high fertility rates are often seen as catastrophic for the planet, alarmists see low fertility rates and population decline as the imminent end of the world and the collapse of civilization, now occurring in most high- and middle-income countries.
Certainly, there are many valid and urgent concerns about the transition to younger and older populations. How can countries prosper economically? How do we ensure that pension and health systems can cope with changing demographics? How do we preserve services and infrastructure for people living in sparsely populated rural areas?
But the state of alarm that dominates public discourse on fertility rates poses real risks. right The report on the state of the world’s population for the current yearpublished today by UNFPA, the United Nations Population Fund, fears about population not only threaten to divert attention from constructive solutions to serious, solvable problems, but risk becoming a “justification to deny rights and integrity body of women and girls.”
When fertility rates are seen as the only problem, it is often said or implied that the solutions should be fertility-related. Or, as the report notes: “Fears and solutions begin to take shape on a woman’s body.” In this way, women’s bodies are treated as tools to achieve demographic ideals, their lives serving to achieve abstract numerical goals – notions made possible by women’s still subordinate status in most spheres of society.
The focus on fertility rates, and therefore on women’s bodies, continues in part because they are treated as easy talking points and can also be used to justify simple but ultimately flawed “solutions”, such as setting fertility targets to “correct” population numbers. It may seem easier to focus on fertility rates and to pressure or incentivize women to have more children than to make the necessary public investments to ensure equitable access to quality education, jobs, coverage with medical services and social protection.
According to new research in the report, the share of countries with fertility-enhancing policies has recently increased. Worryingly, some governments in countries with low fertility rates have implemented measures to restrict women’s access to contraception and legal abortion. More broadly, the report finds that efforts to influence fertility are associated with reduced levels of human freedoms.
This is not to say that efforts to increase fertility are necessarily bad. They can be part of a wider package of measures to manage demographic change, as long as they do not coerce but respect women’s rights and bodily integrity.
The way this would be achieved is to change the focus from fertility to desired fertility. Most people in Eastern Europe would like to have two or more children, but end up having only one or none. Governments can make a real difference by understanding the barriers people face in achieving their fertility plans and reducing the discrepancy between desired and actual fertility.
It is heartening that more and more countries are beginning to put fear aside and respond to demographic change with new and constructive solutions to promote truly prosperous and successful populations. In these countries, objectives are not set, but demographic resilience is aimed at. This approach assumes that social and economic systems remain tuned to what people say they want and need to thrive.
In demographically resilient societies, women’s rights and choices are not an obstacle – quite the opposite. For example, according to a recent United Nations study, greater gender parity in the labor market would do more to support aging economies and low-fertility societies than higher fertility. In Europe today, the most gender-equitable societies tend to be at the top of the development rankings (and, among other things, have the highest fertility rates).
As we face the challenges and opportunities that come with demographic change, we must never let fear guide us. Only when we focus on people and their rights and needs, and when we create fairer and more inclusive societies, can we ensure that countries thrive in a world of rapid demographic change.
Author: Florence Bauer, Director of the UNFPA Regional Office for Eastern Europe and Central Asia
