Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2003/02/25
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]Italy does have by far the lowest birth rate in the developed world, at the moment 1.1 children per woman, far below the rate of 2.2 required to keep a population constant (ignoring immigration). Other countries in southern Europe, like Spain, also have very low birth rates, while countries in northern Europe, especially Scandinavia, are actually at or close to the reproduction level. The most plausible explanation I have heard is that Italian or Spanish woman now want to have a career like their sisters in the north, but the society has not caught up with it, so that the men are not willing to help in the household, there is very little child care infrastructure etc. In contrast, in northern Europe or the US/Canada, where women have been on the labor market for decades, it is far easier to be a working mother. Nathan Henning Wulff wrote: > > I think most developed countries have negative growth if immigration is > discounted, including Canada. We generally keep in practice as well, but > we usually proceed without any period of 'acquiring a taste'. :-) > - -- Nathan Wajsman Herrliberg (ZH), Switzerland e-mail: nathanw@bluewin.ch mobile: +41 78 732 1430 Photo-A-Week: http://www.wajsman.com/indexpaw2003.htm General photo site: http://www.wajsman.com/index.htm - -- To unsubscribe, see http://mejac.palo-alto.ca.us/leica-users/unsub.html