Where Have All the Children Gone?

March 15, 2011
By Jerome Koch

Where have all the children gone? It's a problem that Mark Steyn first addressed in his book America Alone. Other than a piece Jonathan Last recently wrote for Weekly Standard, few if any reporters, pundits, politicians, or scholars seemed to take any interest. This is rather astonishing in so far as everything from our national security, economy, and future well-being depends on our ability to procreate. As Mark Steyn quipped, "...a people that won't multiply can't go forth or go anywhere. Those who do will shape the age we live in."

If one is to glimpse at the TFR (Total Fertility Rates, measured in children per female. One can get them via the CIA Fact Book, Wiki, and various UN publications) he would see that from a TFR of 4.78 in 1970, the global fertility rate fell to 2.56 in 2010. If one is to glance at individual nations, he will notice that some of the lowest rates are in Europe and the former USSR. Poland has a TFR of 1.26, Romania's is 1.20, and the Ukraine's is under 1.3. In Italy, Greece, Spain, France, the UK, Germany and Portugal the TFRs are below 1.5. Scandinavia as a whole fares a little better with TFR's just under 1.9 children per female. But, before these north European nations put themselves on their backs, it should be noted that Scandinavia has very large and fertile Islamic minority population. It is the immigrant populations that are reproducing, and not the hosts. the rest

The United States is at a crossroads. We are not yet in the position of Europe, China, and Japan. But we are not that far behind. As the statistics point out, we will not be able to rely on immigration much longer to grow our population. Procreation of course is a very private matter, but it does have very public ramifications. And history has shown that no amount of government largess encourages couples to procreate. European nations offered very generous inducements for decades, but their fertility rates continue to drop. Jonathon Last noted that fertility rates in many ways are determined by religious beliefs. From this perspective the US, is more secular than is advertised. And unless things change quickly, we will suffer the same fate of Europe and Japan. Postmodern secular nations are committing suicide.