Demographic Winter

I watched an interesting documentary this weekend. It's an hour long discussion about the decline of the "human family". Because of declining birth rates around the world, population numbers are dropping all over. Russia, for one, has a decline in population of 700,000 people per year. Most of Europe and the Americas have below replacement birth rates. Latvia, for example is headed for extinction. Only immigration is increasing the populations of the Americas. However, even cities like Detroit have imploding population numbers. One of the most startling declines, however, is Japan. Their failing economy is directly related to its aging population and its policy of "no immigration."

You can visit this website to view some of the info. One of the remarkable conclusions that the documentary came to was that "people of faith" especially those "of the book", Jews, Christians and Muslims have higher than replacement birth rates.

The documentary explores family policy, economics, and tax policy issues. It concludes that affluence, the rise of the middle class and the entrance of women into the workforce creates conditions in which birth rates will decline. Add to that, the breakdown of traditional family structures and easy access birth control and the stage is set for demographic winter. One startling omission in the data was any mention of abortion of unwanted babies and of gender selection (by abortion or in vitro).

This documentary would be an interesting addition to church libraries or high school social study curricula.