In order to maintain a stable population, EU countries need to have a birth rate of 2.1 children per woman, today the West is facing the question of who will pay pensions for the elderly, whose numbers are growing. The Daily Mail reports that.
To keep a country’s population stable, each woman must have 2.1 children. This is called the reproduction rate. Going below that will put a heavy burden on young people, whose taxes go towards social security and medical services vital for caring for the elderly. Yet there is not a single country in the European Union where the fertility rate exceeds this threshold.
A March report published by medical journal The Lancet said the trend would lead to “staggering social change” as “the consequences of falling fertility are enormous”.
“In the UK, data for 2022 showed that women are having an average of 1.49 children, far below the 2.6 achieved in the 1960s – for the first time in history, half of women are now reaching their 30s without having a child. The 1.3 rate projected for 2100 is even lower. In Western Europe, it will fall slightly less, from 1.53 in 2021 to 1.37 by the end of this century,” the article said.
According to Eurostat, the EU’s population will shrink by 6 per cent by 2100. This may not look so dire, but “the consequences are deeply worrying,” the publication notes.
People aged 65 and over are projected to make up 32 per cent of the population by 2100, up from 22 per cent today. And the West faces the problem of who will pay the rising bills for their pensions and social security.
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