Irish birthrate slumps 22% in a decade

What a bleak, miserable worldview. My wife and I are fortunate to be blessed with two beautiful children, with a third on the way. We would both be happy to have more. Best thing that’s ever happened to both of us and brings immense joy every day.

The entire western world is below replacement fertility, as is most of East Asia. Japan, South Korea, Singapore, and China are all facing demographic collapse, due their extraordinarily low birth rates.

Birth rates in Latin America, the Middle East, the Maghreb, and India are all tumbling, hovering barely above replacement level. In fact, many southern Indian states are already sub replacement.

The only region with explosive population growth is sub-Saharan Africa. That’s where you should be focusing your messaging.

Because for many couples a 2nd job is mandatory..... and not by choice. Quite simply, mortage, cost of living etc, require two salary's. And all these figures will go out the window when a baby comes along. At a guess monkeybutter, I'd say you don't have any children yet?

I think this is more an issue with the states pension scheme in general rather than some grand plan

Like the politicians of today don't have to deal with their mistakes

And generally, in Country's that can least afford them .....Pakistan's population in 1947 ( at foundation ) was 75 million, now 74 years later it has risen to 230 million. Its already an out of control problem, which is getting worse all the time. They are trying to limit it now to a max of 240 million, but even if they succeed, it will still be unmanageable.

“All in all statistics reveal a social convergence between Ireland and the rest of Europe.”

They really don’t. Ireland is still well above the EU average in terms of our fertility rate -

https://www.irishexaminer.com/news/arid-30910812.html

If contraception was available in our grandparents time I very much doubt they'd have had the usual catholic family of 7+ kids.

Ahh it’s less about contraceptives, cars and climate change, but of course there is a human element to birth rates. Large families were just as rare in our grandparents time as they are now. The idea of producing the next generation of little hurlers that would make up a whole team was far more in play than the idea of women in employment. That changed around the 60’s, and was even more evident in the 70’s when Ireland joined the EEC and the marriage bar was lifted -

In 1961, when the population of Ireland was at a historically low level of 2.8 million persons, the number of persons in employment was 1,053,000. Females accounted for 26.4 percent of these. By 1996 the number of women at work had increased by 226,000, representing an increase of 81.5 percent, while male employment increased by only 28,100. The period 1996 to 2001 was one of unprecedented employment growth (greater than 29.2%). At the end of this period women accounted for 40.9 percent of total employment. Furthermore, about 45 percent of these working women were married. The corresponding figure in 1971 was only 14 percent. The labor-force participation of Irish women has now reached the European norm. In 2001 the figure for Ireland was 47.5 percent compared with an overall European Union figure of 47 percent.

https://www.encyclopedia.com/international/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/family-fertility-marriage-and-family-1950

Were I only to use my own circle of friends as examples, we definitely don’t move in the same circles as many of them have three, four and more children. One couple had two more children between them after getting together and she has four children from previous relationships. All children are below the age of 12. That’s just one example of the many blended families I’m aware of. That’s even before we get into the idea of couples availing of IVF and having multiple births in one go, which does come with it’s own peculiar set of issues -

https://m.independent.ie/irish-news/health/ivf-twins-and-triplets-behind-increase-in-low-birth-weights-38116816.html

The idea of the family itself, has changed a great deal since our grandparents time.

It’s a message that needs to be reiterated time and time again. Lower African birth rates and the global fertility rate is scarcely at replacement level.

Of course, this logical message isn’t palatable in the current climate. Instead, you’ll have the usual morons droning on about zero population growth, in countries with sub-replacement fertility.

... not for wasters though. Many taxpayers find it too expensive but if you are housed at the taxpayers expense and also get pocket money it's extremely affordable to have loads of kids.

It was indeed -

https://www.vox.com/platform/amp/future-perfect/2020/2/13/21132013/climate-change-children-kids-anti-natalism

The issue isn’t one of overpopulation, it’s one of overconsumption among the existing population.

- Sent from my iPhone

Well I’m not speaking for the entire country here, just my own experience which is all anyone can do. We have no intention of having kids which we can do now without having to justify it to family or friends. Were we born 30 years earlier we’d have limited opportunities and options. As it is even if we did want children we can limit it to one or two. We actually both come from large families too - 7 kids in mine and my partner is one of 12! - and that experience was definitely an influence in our decision to have none.

Does the woman suffer any effects?

A woman's reason for being is to have children.

If you look at it just from a natural point of view a woman going through life not having children is a failure, an anomaly.

We need to encourage people to have more children and we to stop the nonsense that there is somehow something wrong with being a stay at home mother.

There is a whole societal delinquency at work here that's against what nature intends - child bearing is just one of the issues but there are many distortions going on that down the road will see future generations in a very grim place.