02.27.06
Canada: A childless culture
Canadian families do not make babies like they used to. A dramatic decline in fertility in recent decades, combined with an aging population, has the potential to transform every aspect of Canadian society, from schools and housing to social attitudes toward family. In this, the first of a four-part series, the National Post examines the far-reaching implications of the fertility crisis.
In a future Canada, where senior citizens drastically outnumber babies, schools will be replaced by old-age homes, neighbourhoods of single-family dwellings will make way for smaller condos and townhouses, and playgrounds will become disused relics of the past.
The sound of children’s chattering voices, once common, will be rarely heard.
Baby-making may come to be regarded no longer as the private prerogative of consenting adults, and more an act of national duty.
This is what a childless Canada would look like. But it is not the science-fiction vision of a far-off future. In less than a decade, seniors will outnumber children in Canada; in just 15 years, deaths may outnumber births.
The country’s population is in decline, and unless massive immigration or an overhaul of reproductive attitudes and policies compels a radical turnaround, Canada will soon reflect a lopsided and never-seen-before demographic reality where the young are drastically outnumbered by the old.
It is not that the greying of Canada has come as a surprise. For nearly 20 years, demographers and economists alike have been making projections based on the burgeoning pool of ageing Baby Boomers.
What many didn’t see coming, however, was an accompanying decline in fertility levels, which has been dramatic, persistent — and coincidentally timed so as to deliver a double-whammy to Canada’s population growth…
See the full original article at Canada’s National Post.
If that link goes dead, an archived copy is here.
