不想生孩子!台灣生育率全球最低

華視 /  2010/01/14

台灣女性不婚不生情況愈來愈嚴重，使得台灣生育率逐年降低，去年更掉到全球最低，內政部最新統計，去年出生率降到千分之8.29，每位婦女一生生育的子女數只有一人，全球最低，比香港、日本的還低。而且去年新生兒只有十九萬一千人，比上一年減少七千多人，今年虎年恐怕還會更低。

天使的哭聲，越來越多台灣女生，不這麼覺得，聽到哭聲就不想生，像這位年輕媽媽，一輩子就只痛一次，一輩子的愛只給一個寶貝，拉開簾子，瞧瞧十年前的育嬰室，小BABY擺了三大排還不夠，現在一間都還擺不滿，這讓台灣去年又創下一個世界第一，生育率，世界最低，雖然醫生自己增產報國，是三個孩子的媽。

不只生孩子辛苦，養孩子更辛苦，看看台灣生育率，從八十八年的千分之十二，一路下滑，掉到去年的千分之八，平均每位婦女一輩子只生一個，比香港的1.3、還有日本的1.4，都還低，低到連里長伯都看不下去，自掏腰包，獎勵生育，生一胎給一萬，以前多子多孫多福氣，現在多生只怕養不起。

http://news.cts.com.tw/cts/general/201001/201001140388866.html

重賞之下必有「勇婦」　新竹市生育率全台第一

2010-01-15 01:01:09　NOWnews　生活中心／綜合報導

根據經建會最新統計，台灣去年粗出生率僅千分之8.29，為全球最低。不過，新竹縣市卻增產報國有成，生育率分居全國第一、第二名，原因跟他們的生育津貼很高有關。

小嬰兒呱呱墜地後的哭聲在台灣越來越少聽到，因為台灣在去年成為全球少子排行榜的第一名。但台灣仍然有縣市表現亮眼，生育率一枝獨秀，那就是新竹市。前新竹市長林政則指出，「雙胞胎媽媽所用的體力跟負荷真的非常大，所以我們再加一點經費，作奶粉錢也好。」

原來重賞之下必有「勇婦」，生育率高的撇步在獎勵金，這也讓新竹市去年粗出生率達千分之13.04，高居全國生育率的第一名，而新竹縣則為千分之11.92，緊追在後。至於金門縣、連江縣及桃園縣也都有好表現，擠進前5名。

據了解，新竹市生第一胎有1萬5000元的補助，雙胞胎有兩萬元，三胞胎以上飆到2萬5000元，更不要說其他津貼了，有這樣的好康，難怪新竹婦女樂意增產報國，為低迷的生育率打拚。(新聞來源：東森新聞記者張嘉慧、蔡錦倫)

http://www.nownews.com/2010/01/15/11462-2558459.htm

Last Updated: Friday, 24 March 2006, 16:01 GMT
Map: Parenthood policies in Europe

The BBC News website looks at how governments aroundEurope are tackling low-birth rates with policies designed to make balancing work and parenthood easier. Click on the map to read about each country.

SWEDEN AND NORWAY

Nordic governments employ a range of policies designed to help couples have more children. These governments have a long history of social policies aimed at helping people balance their work and family life. This is part of what is known as the "Nordic model".

In Sweden, each parent is entitled to 18 months leave, which is paid for by the government. Public day care is heavily subsidised and flexible work schedules are common - women with children of pre-school age are entitled to reduce their working hours. Women's participation in the work force is high.  In Norway, mothers are entitled to 12 months off work with 80% pay or10 months with full pay. Fathers are entitled to take almost all of that leave instead of the mother. Fathers must take at least four weeks leave or else those weeks will be lost for both parents. The leave is financed through taxes, so employers don't lose out.

Birth rates per woman: Norway: 1.81, Sweden: 1.75

IRELAND

Ireland has the highest fertility rate in the EU, despite the fact that child care is seen as underdeveloped and expensive.

Mothers get 26 weeks maternity leave plus 14 weeks parental leave.

Birth rate: 1.99

UK

New mothers currently get six months' paid leave and the option of six months further unpaid leave. The first six weeks are at 90% of pay and the next 20 at £102.80 per week. New fathers are allowed two weeks' paid leave at a maximum £102.80 a week.

The government offers free early education places.  Children from the age of four get free part-time places at nurseries -some three year olds also get places.

Parents of children under the age of six have the right to ask their employers for more flexible working hours. Although employers don't have to agree with the request, they have to show they have considered it carefully.

Birth rate: 1.74

GERMANY

Germany has long had one of the lowest birth rates in the European Union and one of the highest proportions of childless women. According to EU statistics from 2005, 30% of German women have not had children.

Demographers say Germany's problem has probably been made worse because it has been ignored for so long.

The government offers 14 weeks maternity leave plus parental leave of up to 36 months, with the level of pay depending on a number of factors.

One of the biggest problems is a real lack of child care places. According to government figures, only one in five children under three get a place in day care. Not only do they close at lunch time, but the fees are incredibly high. Another problem for working parents is that traditionally, the school day ends at 1pm.

The government has now lifted the birth rate to the top of the political agenda. In January, it adopted a bill to give tax breaks to families. It has also floated the idea of eliminating fees for kindergarten.

Birth rate: 1.37

POLAND

The Polish parliament has passed legislation to pay women for each new child they have, in an effort to boost the country's falling population.

Under the scheme every woman will receive a one-off payment of 1,000 zlotys (258 euros; £177) - for each child she has. Women from poorer families will receive double that amount.

The population has actually decreased by close to half a million in the last six years. But some women's groups say payments area quick fix and will not address the long-term trend.

Birth rate: 1.78

FRANCE

France has employed various policies to try to reconcile family life with women working. It has some of the most extensive state-funded child care in Europe.

Mothers can take 16 weeks paid maternity leave for the first child, rising to 26 weeks for the third child. There is also a total of 26 months parental leave.

Last year, the government pledged more money forfamilies with three children in an effort to encourage working women tohave more babies.

Child care facilities are subsidised by the government.  Younger children are entitled to full-day child care (crèches). For children aged two to three there are pre-school programmes for which families pay on a sliding scale.

Birth rates: 1.9 - the second highest fertility rate in Europe.

SPAIN

Currently Spain has the second-lowest rate of fertility among the original 15 EU member states. However in the early 1970s, it was among the highest.

Until recently, there had been strong public opposition to any government action aimed at increasing fertility, partly because such policies were associated with Franco's regime and partly because fertility was perceived as too high.

In 2003, the government introduced a national family policy but there is still a belief that family creation is a private matter. However, Spanish PM Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero has been urging companies to set up child care facilities and promoting long-term employment over short-term contracts.

Fully funded maternity leave can last for 16 weeks, and unpaid leave of three years is available, but only about one-third of Spanish mothers take up maternity benefits.

Child care services vary from region to region, with some being shorter than the working day.

Birth rate: 1.32

ITALY

Italy has long had a problem with declining birth rates.

The problems include what is perceived to be a bias in the workplace to women who interrupt their careers to have children, the high fees charged by private nurseries and a chronic shortage of affordable housing for young people.

The Italian government offers a one-time payment of 1,000 euros (£685) to couples who have a second child.

Late last year a proposal that mooted paying women not to have abortions gained popular support in Parliament.

Birth rate: 1.33

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/4798825.stm

’07 U.S. Births Break Baby Boom Record 

By ERIK ECKHOLM

More babies were born in the United States in2007 than in any other year in American history, according to preliminary data reported Wednesday by the National Center for Health Statistics.

The 4,317,000 births in 2007 just edged out the figure for 1957, at the height of the baby boom. The increase reflected a slight rise in child bearing by women of all ages, including those in their 30s and 40s, and a record share of births to unmarried women.

But in contrast with the culturally transforming post war boom, when a smaller population of women bore an average of three or four children, the recent increase mainly reflects a larger population of women of child bearing age, said Stephanie J.Ventura, chief of reproductive statistics at the center and an authorof the new report. Today, the average woman has 2.1 children.

Also in 2007, for the second straight year and in a trend health officials find worrisome, the rate of births to teenagers rose slightly after declining by one-third from 1991 to 2005.

“The 14 years with teenage birth rates going down was one of the great success stories in public health, and it’s possible that it’s coming to an end,” said Sarah S. Brown, chief executive of the National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy, a private group in Washington.

But officials cautioned that the reversal has been small — a rise of 2 percent in 2006 and 1 percent in 2007 — and that it is too early to know what the rate will do next.

Even at the low point in 2005, the United States had the highest rates of teenage pregnancy, birth andabortion of any industrialized country. Because teenage births carry higher risks of medical problems and poverty for mother and child, state health agencies, schools and private groups have mounted educational campaigns to deter teenage pregnancy.

Still, the reasons for the steep decline and recent reversal are poorly understood. The discussion is colored by politics: some liberals say “abstinence only” sex education and restrictions on distribution of contraceptives are only leading to more pregnancies, while conservatives tend to blame the ever more permissive social climate. 

abstinence  n. the practice of not allowing yourself something,especially food, alcoholic drinks or sex, for moral, religious orhealth reasons （因道德、宗教或健康原因對飲食、酒、色等的）節制；禁慾

permissive  adj. allowing or showing a freedom of behaviour that many people do not approve of, especially in sexual matters 放任的；縱容的；姑息的；（尤指兩性關係）放縱的

Teenage abortion rates have been falling for years and are not believed to be a major factor in the birth trends. “The decline resulted from less sex and more contraception,” Ms. Brown said. “So the new trend must involve some combination of more sex and less contraception.”

The new report also found that the share of births to unmarried women of all ages reached a record high of 40 percent of all births in 2007, the most recent data available. This continued a marked trend upward in unwed births since 2002.

The growth has mainly been fueled by increases among adult women, Ms. Ventura said. Racial and ethnic differences remain large: 28 percent of white babies were born to unmarried mothers in 2007, compared with 51 percent of Hispanic babies and 72 percent of black babies. The shares of births to unwed mothers among whites and Hispanics have climbed faster than the share among blacks, but from lower starting points.

In yet another record high, the share of deliveries by Caesarean section reached 32 percent in 2007, up 2 percent from 2006. Experts have repeatedly said some C-sections are not medically necessary and impose excess costs, but the rate has steadily climbed, from 21 percent in1996.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/19/health/19birth.html

Last Updated: Wednesday, 29 March 2006, 13:56 GMT 14:56 UK
French government eyes 'le baby boom'

When people ask why I decided to settle in France six years ago, one of my answers is that it is easier to bring up a family here. Because it's true.

The Schofields - the more children you have, the less income tax you pay

With three children, my wife Rebecca and I give over an annual sum to the government that is so low British friends reel in disbelief (though it is also true that income levels are much lower here than in the UK).

A further incentive is the monthly allowance of some £180 for families with three children, which rises when they reach 11.

There is the famous carte famille nombreuse (large family card), which brings us 30% reductions on trains and half-priceon the metro, and the carte Paris-famille which gives us free entrance to swimming-pools and other amenities, as well as about £150 a year towards extra-curricular arts and sports.

More benefits

And there is the tax deduction for home help, which makes it easier for Rebecca to work. We have a lady to help once aweek, and some of the money gets written off our tax bill.

FERTILITY RATE In Europe 2.1 children per woman is considered to be the population replacement level. These are national averages Ireland: 1.99 France: 1.90 Norway: 1.81 Sweden 1.75 UK: 1.74 Netherlands: 1.73 Germany: 1.37 Italy: 1.33 Spain: 1.32 Greece: 1.29 Source: Eurostat - 2004 figures

State nursery schools take children from the age of three, and for toddlers there is an extensive - if not quite comprehensive - system of crèches. Later, if you want to put yourchildren into the private system, the nationwide network of RomanCatholic church schools costs about a tenth of what a British public school charges.

With all this, it is maybe not surprising that France ismanaging to buck the trend of European depopulation. With a fertility rate of 1.916, it is second only to Ireland in the birth stakes and,unlike many countries, its population is growing strongly.

According to recent government figures, France's population should reach 75 million (from 62 million today) by the middle of the century, in the process overtaking Germany - whose numbers the UN says will fall from 82 million to 70.8 million in 2050.

Women in the workforce

What is particularly gratifying to French planners is that the bulk of the current population increase - put at 0.68% a year- is caused by home-grown births and only a quarter to immigration.

Throughout its modern history, France has been obsessed about population levels

Throughout its modern history France has been obsessed about population levels. Experts have established that around the time of the revolution, French mothers stopped breeding - no one knows why -and a population that had been the largest in Europe fell during the 19th century behind Britain and the emerging Germany.

The massive loss of life in World War I helped spread the conviction that national survival was linked to numbers.

Today, French governments of left and right put the "family" high in their election manifestos, and every year there is amuch-publicised Conference on the Family, attended by the prime minister, parents and campaigning groups.

At last year's event, prime minister Dominique de Villepin outlined new incentives to encourage two-child families to move on to a third.

Until now, there has been a pay-out of £345 a month for mothers (or occasionally fathers) to take time off for up to three years for a third child. Under the new measures they have the option of taking a bigger pay-out of £508 for just one year - the idea being towin over women who were reluctant for financial or professional reasons to stop work.

On top of that, tax-credit for hiring child-minders isbeing doubled, and the carte famille nombre use is being extended to cover museum entrance fees and other leisure activities.