Natalism (also called pronatalism or the pro-birth position) is an ideology that promotes the reproduction of human life as an important objective of being human and advocates high birthrate. [1] According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, the term, as it relates to the belief itself, dates from 1971 and comes from French : nataliste, formed from French : natalité, birthrate. [2]
Natalism promotes child-bearing and parenthood as desirable for social reasons and to ensure the continuance of humanity. Some philosophers have noted that if humans fail to have children, humans would become extinct. [3] [4] However, many reproductive rights advocates and environmentalists see it as a driver of reproductive injustice, population growth, and ecological overshoot. [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] [10] Natalism in public policy typically seeks to create financial and social incentives for populations to reproduce, such as providing tax incentives that reward having and supporting children. [6] Those who adhere to more strict natalism may seek to limit access to abortion and contraception, as well. [11] The opposite of natalism is antinatalism; however most feminists and reproductive rights advocates challenge natalism in order to elevate procreative freedom, and do not align with antinatalism. [12] [6]
Many religions encourage procreation, and religiousness in members can sometimes correlate to higher rates of fertility. [13] Judaism, [14] Islam, and major branches of Christianity, including the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints [15] and the Catholic Church [16] [17] [18] [19] encourage procreation. In 1979 one research paper indicated that Amish people had an average of 6.8 children per family. [20] Among some conservative Protestants, the Quiverfull movement advocates for large families and views children as blessings from God. [21] [22] [23]
Beginning around the early 2020s, the threat of "global demographic collapse" began to become a cause célèbre among wealthy tech and venture-capitalist circles [24] [25] as well as the political right. [25] [26] In Europe, Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orbán has made natalism a key plank of his political platform. [25] In the United States, key figures include Kevin Dolan, organizer of the Natal Conference, [27] [26] [28] Simone and Malcolm Collins, founders of Pronatalist.org, [24] [29] [27] and Elon Musk, who has repeatedly used his public platform to discuss global birth rates. [24] [25]
The right-wing proponents of pronatalism argue that falling birthrates could lead to economic stagnation, diminished innovation, and an unsustainable burden on social systems due to an aging population. [29] The movement suggests that without a significant increase in birth rates, the sustainability of civilizations could be in danger; Elon Musk has called it a "much bigger risk" than global warming. [30] [24] Critics have linked this movement with the far-right and eugenics. [27] [31] [26]
An intention to have children is a substantial fertility factor in actually ending up doing so, but childless individuals who intend to have children immediately or within two or three years are generally more likely to succeed than those who intend to have children in the long term. [32] There are many determinants of the intention to have children, including:
The 1968 encyclical Humanae Vitae criticized artificial contraception and advocated for a natalist position. [39]
According to the UN, the share of countries with pronatalist policies had grown from 20% in 2005 to 28% in 2019. [40]
Some countries with population decline offer incentives to the people to have large families as a means of national efforts to reverse declining populations. Incentives may include a one-time baby bonus, or ongoing child benefit payments or tax reductions. Some impose penalties or taxes on those with fewer children. [7] [8] Some nations, such as Japan, [41] Singapore, [42] and South Korea, [43] have implemented, or tried to implement, interventionist natalist policies, creating incentives for larger families among native stock. Immigrants are generally not part of natalist policies.
Paid maternity and paternity leave policies can also be used as an incentive. For example, Sweden has generous parental leave wherein parents are entitled to share 16 months' paid leave per child, the cost divided between both employer and state. Unfortunately, it appears not to work as desired. [44] [45]
Books advocating natalist policies include What to Expect When No One's Expecting by Jonathan V. Last [46] such as Selfish Reasons To Have More Kids by Bryan Caplan.
Books, films, and advocates that warn of the harms of natalism on reproductive rights and planetary health include The Baby Matrix: Why Freeing Our Minds From Outmoded Thinking About Parenthood & Reproduction Will Create a Better World by Laura Carroll, To Kid or Not to Kid by Maxine Trump, My So-Called Selfish Life by Therese Shechter, and The Overpopulation Podcast by the US nonprofit Population Balance. In her book The Patriarchs: The Origins of Inequality, British science journalist, broadcaster and author Angela Saini identifies the emergence of states and empires about 5000 years ago as the roots of patriarchy and institutionalized pronatalism. [47]
Natalist thinking was common during the Soviet times. After a brief adherence to the strict Communist doctrine in 1920s and attempts to raise children communally, coupled with the government-provided healthcare, the Soviet government switched to neo-traditionalism, promoting family values and sobriety, banning abortions and making divorces harder to obtain, advancing natalist ideals that made mockery of irresponsible parents. The expanded opportunities for female employment caused a population crisis in 1930s, government had expanded access to child care starting at age of two. [48] After the Great Patriotic war the skewed ratio of men to women prompted additional financial assistance to women that had children or were pregnant. Despite the promotion and long maternity leave with maintenance of the employment and salary modernization still caused the birthrates to continue to unfortunately slide into the 1970's. [49]
The end of USSR in 1991 was accompanied by a large drop in fertility. [49] In 2006, Vladimir Putin made the demographics an important issue, [50] instituting a two-prong approach of direct financial rewards and socio-cultural policies. The notable example of the former is the maternal-capital program where the woman is provided with subsidies that can be spent only on improved housing or the education of a child (and can also be saved for the retirement). [51]
The Hungarian government of Viktor Orbán in 2019 announced pecuniary incentives (including eliminating taxes for mothers with more than three children, and reducing credit payments and easier access to loans), and expanding day care and kindergarten access. [52]
Human population planning is the practice of managing the growth rate of a human population. The practice, traditionally referred to as population control, had historically been implemented mainly with the goal of increasing population growth, though from the 1950s to the 1980s, concerns about overpopulation and its effects on poverty, the environment and political stability led to efforts to reduce population growth rates in many countries. More recently, however, several countries such as China, Japan, South Korea, Russia, Iran, Italy, Spain, Finland, Hungary and Estonia have begun efforts to boost birth rates once again, generally as a response to looming demographic crises.
Family planning is the consideration of the number of children a person wishes to have, including the choice to have no children, and the age at which they wish to have them. Things that may play a role on family planning decisions include marital situation, career or work considerations, financial situations. If sexually active, family planning may involve the use of contraception and other techniques to control the timing of reproduction.
A baby boom is a period marked by a significant increase of births. This demographic phenomenon is usually ascribed within certain geographical bounds of defined national and cultural populations. The cause of baby booms involves various fertility factors. The best-known baby boom occurred in the mid-twentieth century, sometimes considered to have started after the end of the Second World War, sometimes from the late 1940s, and ending in the 1960s. People born during this period are often called baby boomers.
Fertility is the ability to conceive a child. The fertility rate is the average number of children born during an individual's lifetime and is quantified demographically. Conversely, infertility is the difficulty or inability to reproduce naturally. In general, infertility is defined as not being able to conceive a child after one year of unprotected sex. Because infertility is widespread, fertility specialists all over the world assist persons and couples who experience difficulties conceiving a baby.
Birth rate, also known as natality, is the total number of live human births per 1,000 population for a given period divided by the length of the period in years. The number of live births is normally taken from a universal registration system for births; population counts from a census, and estimation through specialized demographic techniques. The birth rate is used to calculate population growth. The estimated average population may be taken as the mid-year population.
Voluntary childlessness or childfreeness describes the active choice not to have children. The word childfree first appeared sometime before 1901 and entered common usage among feminists during the 1970s. The suffix -free refers to the freedom and personal choice of those to pick this lifestyle. The meaning of the term childfree extends to encompass the children of others, and this distinguishes it further from the more usual term childless, which is traditionally used to express the idea of having no children, whether by choice or by circumstance. In the research literature, the term child-free or childfree has also been used to refer to parents currently not living with their children, for example because they have already grown up and moved out. In common usage, childfree might be used in the context of venues or activities wherein (young) children are excluded even if the people involved may be parents, such as a childfree flight or a childfree restaurant.
The Total Fertility Rate (TFR) of a population is the average number of children that are born to a woman over her lifetime if:
Sub-replacement fertility is a total fertility rate (TFR) that leads to each new generation being less populous than the older, previous one in a given area. The United Nations Population Division defines sub-replacement fertility as any rate below approximately 2.1 children born per woman of childbearing age, but the threshold can be as high as 3.4 in some developing countries because of higher mortality rates. Taken globally, the total fertility rate at replacement was 2.33 children per woman in 2003. This can be "translated" as 2 children per woman to replace the parents, plus a "third of a child" to make up for the higher probability of males born and mortality prior to the end of a person's fertile life. In 2020, the global average fertility rate was around 2.4 children born per woman.
Sexual and reproductive health (SRH) is a field of research, health care, and social activism that explores the health of an individual's reproductive system and sexual well-being during all stages of their life. Sexual and reproductive health is more commonly defined as sexual and reproductive health and rights, to encompass individual agency to make choices about their sexual and reproductive lives.
The tax on childlessness was a natalist policy imposed in the Soviet Union and other Communist countries, starting in the 1940s. Joseph Stalin's regime created the tax in order to encourage adult people to reproduce, thus increasing the number of people and the population of the Soviet Union. The 6% income tax affected men from the age of 25 to 50, and married women from 20 to 45 years of age.
Population planning in Singapore has reflected various policies to both slow and boost the growth rate of Singapore's population. Singapore first began population planning initiatives in an attempt to slow and reverse the rapid increase in births that began after World War II. Later on, from the 1980s, policy was tailored towards growth, attempting to encourage mothers to have more children. In 2020, the annual total population growth rate in Singapore was -0.3%, and its resident total fertility rate (TFR) was 1.10, below the replacement rate of 2.1.
A bachelor tax is a punitive tax imposed on unmarried men. In the modern era, many countries do vary tax rates by marital status, so current references to bachelor taxes are typically implicit rather than explicit; and given the state of tax law is very complicated, as tax accountancy concepts like income splitting can come into play.
China's family planning policies have included specific birth quotas as well as harsh enforcement of such quotas. Together, these elements constitute the population planning program of the People's Republic of China. China's program should not be confused with the family planning programs instituted in other countries, which were designed to encourage parents to have the number of children they desired—in China, the provision of contraception through family planning programs was subservient to a birth planning program under which the government designated how many births parents could have in order to control the size of its population.
For years, the census data in China has recorded a significant imbalance in the sex ratio toward the male population, meaning there are fewer women than men. This phenomenon is sometimes referred to as the missing women or missing girls of China. China's official census report from 2000 shows that there were 117 boys for every 100 girls. The sex imbalance in some rural areas is even higher, at 130 boys to 100 girls, compared to a global average of 105 or 106 boys to 100 girls. In 2021, the male-to-female ratio of China is recorded at 104.61 to 100.
In South Korea, aging refers to an increase in the proportion of senior citizens to the total population. The term "senior citizens" include those aged 65 or older. According to Article 3 no.1 of the Framework Act on Low Birthrate of an Aging Society, the term "aging population" refers to the increasing proportion of elderly people in the entire population.
4B is a radical feminist movement which is purported to have originated in South Korea in 2019. Its proponents renounce dating men, marriage, sex with men and having children.
The three-child policy, whereby a couple can have three children, is a family planning policy in the People's Republic of China. The policy was announced on 31 May 2021 at a meeting of the Politburo of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), chaired by CCP General Secretary Xi Jinping, on population aging.
Infertility and childlessness stigmas are social and cultural codes that identify the inability to have children as a disgraceful state of being. Broadly speaking, in many cultures, "Demonstrating fertility is necessary to be considered a full adult, a real man or woman, and to leave a legacy after death," and thus the failure to make this demonstration is penalized. Both male infertility and female infertility can be stigmatized, however, in many traditional cultures, women are held responsible for child-rearing and thus for pregnancy or the lack thereof. Infertility and childlessness stigmas are related to disability or physical-deformity stigmas and violation-of-group-norm stigmas. Infertility is a "deeply intimate matter, often deemed as taboo to discuss publicly."
No one wants to tell their mother-in-law.
Population Balance is a non-profit organization in the United States that raises awareness of the connections between pronatalism, human supremacy, social inequalities, and ecological overshoot, and advocates for solutions to address their combined impacts on the planet, people, and animals.
Simone Collins and Malcolm Collins are an entrepreneurial husband-and-wife team who are primarily known for their views and advocacy related to pronatalism, a stance encouraging higher birth rates and expressing concerns about demographic decline and its implications on society and the economy. They are the founders of Pronatalist.org, The Collins Institute for the Gifted, and The Pragmatist Foundation.
Natalism is an ideology that advocates a high birth rate within a community.[...] The central message is that parents should have additional children.
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: CS1 maint: date and year (link)Women who report firm adherence to their religious beliefs and practices tend to have higher fertility than less religious women, whether Christian or Muslim. But religiousness does not always mean higher fertility. [...] The study confirms the perception that Muslim women have more children than non-Muslims in Western Europe, but shows that the gap is not as large as many believe. And, similar to other immigrants in other countries, Muslim fertility rates tend to fall over time, narrowing the gap with the non-Muslims who make up the vast majority of the European population now, and for the foreseeable future.
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: CS1 maint: url-status (link)Calder, Vanessa Brown, and Chelsea Follett (August 10, 2023). Freeing American Families: Reforms to Make Family Life Easier and More Affordable, Policy Analysis no. 955, Cato Institute, Washington, DC.