Demographic decline and population crises were major issues in 2023, particularly in industrialized nations like South Korea and China. Despite efforts to increase birth rates, no solution was found to maintain population growth alongside industrial development. China's authoritarian rulers faced challenges in ordering their subjects to have more babies. Various cultural and historic factors contributed to each country's unique crisis.
Demographic decline was a big story around the world in 2023, as most industrialized nations wrestled with lower fertility rates while countries like South Korea and China slid into population crises. Each crisis had unique cultural and historic factors, such as the lingering hangover from China ’s brutal One Child Policy of forced abortions and sterilization, but no one seemed able to crack the code of maintaining population growth alongside industrial development.
This was especially vexing for China, whose authoritarian rulers assumed they could order their subjects to have more babies as easily as they once forced them to stop multiplying. China kicked off the year byinto having babies by calling them “pedophobes” if they refused. In August, the city of Xian sent out text messages on the Chinese version of Valentine’s DayA woman cycles past a billboard encouraging couples to have only one child, along a road leading to a village in the suburb of Beijing, 25 March 200
Demographic Decline Population Crisis Industrialized Nations Fertility Rates China South Korea