birth rate

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S. Korea to Workers: Go Home and Make Babies

Office lights out at 7 last night in effort to boost birth rate

(Newser) - South Korea's government has issued an unusual directive to its workers: Go home and make babies. Faced with an aging population and one of the world's lowest birth rates, Ministry of Health officials enforced the order by switching off all the lights in their building at 7pm last night. The...

Elephants on Verge of Extinction

Illegal hunting could kill off African population in 15 years

(Newser) - Within 15 years, African elephants could be extinct as a consequence of rampant ivory poaching, conservation experts say. Africa's elephant population numbers just 600,000, and that number appears to be dwindling by about 38,000 a year. That’s faster than the birth rate. One animal welfare group is...

10% of Babies Are Premature, Taxing World's Health System

Of 13 million preemies, 1 million die before surviving 1 month

(Newser) - Nearly 10% of babies born each year worldwide arrive prematurely, and the stress of caring for them "is exacting a huge toll emotionally, physically and financially on families, medical systems and economies," the March of Dimes said today. Some 13 million babies are preemies, and more than 1...

Latest Victim of Recession: Larger Families

(Newser) - Families appear to be putting off that baby until economic conditions improve, the New York Times reports. The birth rate fell 2% in 2008 compared to 2007, and the trend looks to be continuing into 2009. “It’s the recession," a sociologist says. "Children are the most...

A Year After China Quake, a Baby Boom

(Newser) - The devastation is still raw from the earthquake that snuffed out thousands of young lives in rural China a year ago, reports the Los Angeles Times, but many grieving parents have found new hope in the form of another baby. More than 10% of new mothers in one Sichuan Province...

Fewer Sons Born Close to Sun
 Fewer Sons Born Close to Sun 
Apr 1, 2009 7:18 AM CDT

Fewer Sons Born Close to Sun

New study finds more girls born closer to equator

(Newser) - Women who live near the equator are more likely to give birth to baby girls than boys, the Independent reports. A new study has found a small but significant shift in gender ratios depending on latitude, with males comprising 51.1% of tropical births; the global sex ratio is 51....

Georgian Church Leader Sparks a Baby Boom

(Newser) - A little divine intervention has apparently helped a city in the nation of Georgia give its population a boost. Two years ago, faced with a stagnant birth rate, the head of Georgia’s Orthodox Church pledged to personally baptize any child born to parents with more than two other kids....

US Births Hit Record High
US Births Hit Record High
Mar 18, 2009 1:56 PM CDT

US Births Hit Record High

2007 beats baby boom's biggest year; teen pregnancies rise for second year

(Newser) - A record 4.31 million babies were born in the US in 2007, USA Today reports, topping the 4.30 million born in 1957, the height of the “baby boom”—although that year remains impressive because the overall population of the US was much smaller. Unmarried women bore...

Couples Rattled by Recession Delay Kids

Babyies too expensive in shrinking economy

(Newser) - Baby booms and busts have long been reliable economic indicators, so it's no surprise that couples facing layoffs and a tough housing market are holding off on pregnancies. Pricey fertility clinics are the first to feel couples' hesitation to reproduce. The magnitude of the economic affect on the American population...

Japanese Women Dodge Men ISO Mommies, Stay Single

Plunging birth rate causes national alarm

(Newser) - "WANTED: Female to cook, clean, wash my socks, bear and raise my children, and generally enable my workaholism—all while maintaining your own career in a sexist environment." Sound good? Given the choice, many Japanese women are saying to heck with marriage and staying single, reports the Washington ...

Record US Births Top Boomer Peak
Record US Births Top Boomer Peak
Jul 18, 2008 4:46 AM CDT

Record US Births Top Boomer Peak

Fertility is lower but larger population adds up to baby bumper crop

(Newser) - More Americans were born last year than in any other in history, reports ABC News. The 4,315,000 bundles of joy even top the Baby Boom at its peak. The expanding population is expected to put more pressure on scarce resources, but all those new taxpayers will help foot...

In Japan, Elders Outnumber Kids

Too many senior citizens, not enough children means trouble ahead

(Newser) - Monday was Children’s Day in Japan, but the holiday has a bitter irony in a land where the number of children has been waning for 27 years. Kids account for only 13.5% of Japan’s population, while the elderly make up 22%, the Washington Post reports.

China Hangs Onto 1-Child Policy
China Hangs Onto 1-Child Policy
Mar 10, 2008 6:16 PM CDT

China Hangs Onto 1-Child Policy

Country fears growth boom if rule is rescinded

(Newser) - China will keep up its one-child policy over the next decade as nearly 200 million citizens reach child-bearing age, CNN reports. "Given such a large population base, there would be major fluctuations in population growth if we abandoned the one-child rule now," said the country's family planning minister,...

China May Drop 1-Baby Law
China May Drop 1-Baby Law
Feb 29, 2008 7:32 AM CST

China May Drop 1-Baby Law

Officials want more girls, but fear triggering baby boom

(Newser) - China, faced with an aging population and too few women, may end its controversial one- child-per-family policy. The law that allowed urban couples only one child and rural families two is credited with preventing 400 million births over three decades. But cultural preferences for males has also created a troubling...

'06 a Mini Baby Boom for US
'06 a Mini Baby Boom for US
Jan 16, 2008 10:38 AM CST

'06 a Mini Baby Boom for US

4.3M births highest in 45 years, go against trends in industrialized world

(Newser) - The US experienced a mini baby boom in 2006, with the largest number of children born since the 1960s. The AP reports 4.3 million births that year, giving the US a higher birth rate than Europe, Australia, Canada, or Japan. Hispanics accounted for a quarter of all US births,...

South Korea Bounces Reign of Baby Boys

Girls find new favor as sex imbalance begins to reverse

(Newser) - Shedding an age-old preference for sons, South Korea has in the last two decades become the first Asian country to reverse a large sex imbalance at birth. A radical shift in Koreans' attitude toward female babies—and toward working women—has brought down the rate of sex-selection abortion, the New ...

In Japan, Robots Tackle the Dirty Work

As workforce shrinks, machines gain favor over immigrants

(Newser) - With the birthrate sinking and the government showing no inclination to loosen immigration restrictions, Japanese businesses are turning to science for help with the impending worker shortage. The London Times visits a Tokyo exhibition that showcases the possible answer: robots. "Robots do the D-work"--dirty, dangerous, and difficult--"that...

Russians Get Holiday to Multiply
Russians Get Holiday to Multiply
Aug 15, 2007 5:38 PM CDT

Russians Get Holiday to Multiply

Couples get day off nine months before country's national day

(Newser) - The Ulyanovsk region of Russia will give its citizens a day off to procreate—nine months before Russia's national day of June 12; couples whose children are born on that day can even win prizes. The Russian population has been dropping since the early 90s, and President Putin has called...

Singapore Blossoms into Major City
Singapore Blossoms into Major City
May 27, 2007 8:00 AM CDT

Singapore Blossoms into Major City

Stern Asian capital set to emerge as a tourist haven filled with casinos, hotels, and amusement parks

(Newser) - Singapore is transforming itself from a dull metropolis famous for its draconian cleanliness into an exciting, vibrant, tourists' paradise, Time reports. Plans are percolating for casinos, skyscrapers, amusement parks, and a multi-billion dollar residential and commercial real estate development located downtown.

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