“Our parents think that if they have more children, they can take care more when they are old. But the younger generation no longer thinks so, they have a different mindset. They think that raising a child is already It’s just too tiring.”
Population experts said China’s strict zero-COVID policies that were in place for three years have further damaged the country’s demographic outlook.
China is one of the most expensive places to raise a child, second only to South Korea, according to Beijing-based Yuva Population Research.
In a study published last year, the think tank compared the cost of raising a child until the age of 18 relative to multiples of GDP per capita for different countries.
It was 2.08 times in Australia, 2.24 times in France, 2.91 times in Sweden, 3.64 times in Germany and 4.11 times in the US.
By comparison, North Asian countries were the costliest, with Japan at 4.26 times, China at 6.9 times and South Korea at 7.79 times. They were ranked very low for gender equality by the World Economic Forum versus countries like Finland and Norway where birth rates were rising. Demographers said that one of the main reasons for the low birth rate is gender inequality.
The governments of South Korea and Japan have also introduced measures aimed at encouraging people to have children, but there is still much resistance to starting a family.
“The biggest reason is people are not able to afford the cost or the time it takes to give birth and raise children,” said Yoo Hyun-su, a 23-year-old South Korean college student in Seoul.
India may have already overtaken China to become the most populous country in the world. UN experts predicted last year that India’s population would hit 1.412 billion in 2022, and were expecting the South Asian nation to overtake China this year.
On the streets of the Indian capital, some felt the government needed to step in to control population growth, though it is already slowing.
New Delhi resident Azhar Khan said, “They should bring some rules and regulations.” “When the country’s population is under control, then only we can develop further.”