Austrian researchers have calculated that even if birth rates improve “significantly,” Europe's population will continue to decline.
The new discovery is that the year 2000 was a turning point at which the population’s “momentum” became negative, meaning that there will be a shrinkage in the number of parents in the next generation because the present generation of parents had relatively few children. The authors, Wolfgang Lutz at the Austrian Academy of Science in Vienna, and Brian O'Neill at the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis in Laxenburg, based their study on data from the European Demographic Observatory.
“Negative momentum has not been experienced on a large scale in world history so far,” Lutz said. He did not say how much immigration would be needed to make up the difference, but suggested that most of any potential catch-up growth would have to come from immigrants. The changing role of women away from childbirth toward careers — was cited as a significant factor.
For more coverage on this story, see The Times.
(This update courtesy of LifeSite News.)
