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BBC News
By Stephanie Hegarty
image copyrightGetty Images
image captionChina is under pressure to boost measures for couples to have more babies and avert a population decline
In the past two weeks two global superpowers have had to face an unsettling reality - census results in the US and in China indicate that both countries are likely to start shrinking in population much sooner than they thought.
That s because fertility rates are falling fast. As that happens, the population gets older, which can stand in the way of economic growth. It s something governments are usually keen to avoid.
China and the US are not at that point yet. But they could learn from other countries that are already thinking about how to boost fertility.
2021-03-10 17:35:34 GMT2021-03-11 01:35:34(Beijing Time) Xinhua English
HELSINKI, March 10 (Xinhua) The COVID-19 pandemic may have improved the population prospects of Finland, a government press release said Wednesday.
During 2020, the decline in the Finnish birth rate seems to have stopped and net immigration has stabilized, said Anna Rotkirch, research professor at the Finnish Family Federation.
The fertility rate of women rose to 1.37 from 1.35 in 2019, Statistics Finland reported earlier.
However, the report commissioned by the government from Rotkirch also expressed concern about the future and urged a comprehensive approach to demographics.
During the 2010s, the Finnish population development broke away from the general Nordic trend. Finland had the slowest rate of population growth in the Nordics, and the total fertility rate decreased to less than 1.4 children per woman on average.