Imagine if having children came with more than $150,000 in cheap loans, a subsidized minivan and a lifetime exemption from income taxes. But the decline hit Europe harder and faster than demographers expected—a foreshadowing of the sudden drop in the U.S. fertility rate in recent years. The U.S. fertility rate is 1.6. Hungary’s fertility rate collapsed after the fall of the Soviet Union and by 2010 was down to 1.25 children for every woman. Hungary’s fertility rate has fallen for the past two years.

Source: Wall Street Journal October 14, 2024 02:33 UTC