Daily London
Australia’s birth rate is expected to plummet to a new record low after years of steady decline.
The nation’s total fertility rate (TFR) has been below the replacement level of 2.1 children per adult woman for almost 50 years now.
But the situation has become more dire of late.
And this year it’s expected to fall even lower to 1.42, the lowest it has ever been.
These record lows have been driven by multiple overlapping factors, from more Aussies choosing to have kids later in life, to older women having fewer children.
Some families stop at one child for personal or financial reasons, as raising a multi-child family in Australia can be prohibitively expensive between the cost of groceries, housing and schooling.
”The government is rolling out policies to ease pressure on families and make it easier for people to have children if they want to,” Treasurer Jim Chalmers said in the Centre for Population report.
“Including by taking the next steps in building a universal early education and care system and expanding and enhancing paid parental leave.”
But some Aussies are choosing to forego parenthood altogether as zero-child families become more common.
Others remain childless due to fertility issues, which affect about one in nine couples.
Many want children but some can’t afford to pursue medically assisted reproduction (MAR) methods like in-vitro fertilisation (IVF), or run out of money before they are successful.
The same issue may arise for same-sex couples or individuals who want to have children but can’t afford the MAR required to make it happen.
9news.com.au wants to hear from Australians who can shed light on how the plummeting birth rate reflects on their family, whether they decided to have kids later for financial reasons, invested all their savings in IVF, or skipped having kids altogether.
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