Declining birth rate is a global trend

THE EDITOR, Madam:

Health Minister Christopher Tufton announced strategies to combat the country’s declining birth rate, which fell from 70,000 per annum in the 1970s to 30,000 currently, a decline of more than 50 per cent. Strategies include public relations and support to families and improved neonatal care. It should be made clear that this decline is not unique to Jamaica alone.

In the US and elsewhere, the trend in birth rate is also in decline, this is because of a shift in priorities, economics (people cannot afford to raise children and start families), social media and digital distraction and anti-social trends, which leads to less intimacy, perpetuated even more by the pandemic which began in 2020. There is also a slower life strategy, where young people are delaying traditional milestones, moving out later, marrying later, and prioritising finishing school, before there is any consideration of marrying or starting a family. There is also mental stress and less teenage pregnancies for many of the same reasons mentioned, with increased awareness and education about consequences, birth control, diseases and health risks.

Jamaica should capitalise on the decline, i.e. less stress on healthcare in the next several years, less maternity mortality. We must use this period of decline to help to correct the many flaws in the health system and overhaul the system to meet the needs of the population. Elsewhere, there should be other benefits, such as less cars on roads, less traffic, allowing authorities time to revamp transportation sector and better control and manage road traffic laws. The government should be able to breathe, plan and strategise to prepare for the time when birth rates start to rise again.

The impact is not only negative. For sure, with artificial intelligence and development in technology, which will impact Jamaica, there will be less need for human labour in the next decade. We also expect the public service to shrink as efficiencies are implemented. I suspect, with the rise of social influencers and creatives, there will be more self-employed.

We can’t be boxed into old ways of thinking when life around us is rapidly changing. Every decline creates new opportunities. Every break creates a blessing.

P CHIN

chin_p@yahoo.com