singapore birth rATE 1.09

 

DECEMBER 3, 2012 Monday

Materialism Underlies Singapore's Low Birth Rate

People living in Singapore are more materialistic and less satisfied with life than their American counterparts and thus have a lower desire for children, says a team led by Norman P. Li of Singapore Management University. It is apparently at least in part for this reason that the fertility rate in Singapore, at 1.09 births per woman's lifetime, is about half the U.S. fertility rate of 2.05, the researchers say. Fertility rates in Hong Kong, Japan, Singapore, South Korea, and Taiwan have dropped below levels required to sustain the countries' populations.

Source: The Incompatibility of Materialism and the Desire for Children: Psychological Insights into the Fertility Discrepancy Among Modern Countries