Women should have the right to choose when to get married, and the number of children to have, said a UN expert at a Doha International Family Institute (Difi)
BBC News
By Stephanie Hegarty
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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.