Setanta wrote:You cover a lot of ground, Habibi, when you refer to Europe. In the first place, i think you might be able to make a case that until recently, the core nations of the EU might have had a lower birth rate than the United States. [..] But with the burgeoning immigrant population in the west of Europe, i wonder if birth rates are still significantly lower in that part of Europe. [..] When you say Europe, you are not nearly describing a political, social, economic and cultural unity which equates with the United States.
Europe may be socially and culturally diverse, but despite immigration,
all European countries appear to have a lower birth rate than the US.
I wouldnt be surprised if there were a correlation with the greater spread of secularism and liberalism.
(I'll leave out the Eastern European countries I checked - Croatia, Romania, Bulgaria, Ukraine, Slovakia, Poland, Latvia - from the list below; birth rates there are generally
extra low, ie <10, but that's no wonder with the existential insecurity that came with economic crisis and bleak outlooks.)
Birth rates
Births/1,000 population
All 2006 estimates
Source: CIA World Factbook
USA
14.14
France
11.99
Denmark
11.13
Netherlands
10.9
UK
10.71
Sweden
10,27
Spain
10.06
Greece
9.68
Italy
8.72
Germany
8.25
