New York, NY — The United Nations continues to voice concern over the dual demographic trends of declining births and an increasingly elderly population, this time focusing its attention on what it considers the increasingly worrisome situation in Asia. According to a UN press release, delegates meeting at the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UN/ESCAP), being held in Bangkok, concluded that this combination of fertility decline and aging “could result in future destitution for many people, especially women,” throughout the continent.
The press release claims that “the clock is ticking” on “Asia's aging population,” and that the elderly now face the prospect of “no golden years,” since there will not be enough young workers to maintain social security systems.
The UN/ESCAP report is a notable development because it highlights that these demographic concerns are no longer restricted to Europe, where fertility decline and population “graying” have long been apparent. In fact, UN/ESCAP anticipates that the nations of Asia will face even more daunting challenges than those of Europe. According to the United Nations Information Services, “It's been known for many years that the 'graying population' of developed countries would create socio-economic problems in the not so distant future. But UN/ESCAP population forecasts for Asia and the Pacific predict an even greater social upheaval, since, compared to more developed nations, many developing countries in this region have far fewer social programs in place to care for their rapidly graying populations.”
What is more, the UN/ESCAP meeting concluded that the effects of this demographic shift are already taking hold in Asia. As the press release states, “a declining birth rate means fewer offspring to provide direct support, financial and otherwise, to parents who rely on their offspring to care for them in their old age. And the impact is already being felt.”
For instance, many Asian elderly were thrown into poverty when children were unable to continue supporting them during the financial crisis of 1997.
The UN/ESCAP meeting follows on the heels of a March, 2002 meeting of demographers, convened by the United Nations Population Division, to discuss whether the fertility of developing countries – including those in Asia – will continue to fall, perhaps even reaching the extremely low fertility rates found in many developed nations. The general consensus that emerged from this meeting was that it was impossible to tell “how low fertility will go.”
Last week, Japan's Health Minister stated that “the Japanese race will become extinct” if fertility decline is not reversed. In 2000, the UN predicted that Japan would need to import 600,000 workers a year in order to keep its working population stable.
This new emphasis on fertility decline would seem to isolate the United Nations Population Fund, which continues to promote the need for population control.
For more on this issue, see the Catholic Family and Human Rights Institute.
(This article courtesy of Steven Ertelt and the Pro-Life Infonet email newsletter. For more information or to subscribe go to www.prolifeinfo.org or email infonet@prolifeinfo.org.)