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Frequency of sex is declining in Finland since the 2000s, according to an ongoing 50 year study. The sharpest decline has been shown for 30-40 year olds who are down to once a week as the average. Sexperts downplay the importance of the findings. The results are based on the FINSEX research project that has tracked the subject for decades.
How is the situation in your country?
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Not recommended for children.
(Score: 1) by itn on Saturday March 05 2016, @02:24PM
All jokes aside, aging population is a real problem in Finland, as it is all around Europe. http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/statistics-explained/index.php/Population_structure_and_ageing [europa.eu].
Finland's age pyramid [tilastokoulu.stat.fi] from 1900 to 2060. You can understand why this is a real issue that we have a lot of people not in the the workforce AND needing care. Finland is not alone in this regard, but I believe that our population is "aging most rapidly" in the European Union.
After the second World War, in 1946-1950 Finns had plenty of kids. Our "baby boomers" are said to be born in 1946-1950 which is somewhat stricter definition than with the US baby boomers. Baby boom coupled with our astonishingly good education system helped our country advance very fast from the agricultural society we were before and after WW2. But now those kids are retired, in need of care and our age pyramid is getting top-heavy very rapidly.
The aging of our population has been in the talks in economy and politics for a long time. It's not new nor surprising. But with the influx of refugees and immigrants starting last year, our age pyramid is partially back in the daily conversation. The refugees and immigrants are mostly young males, and some say it's beneficial for Finland to have them because they would enter our workforce and help offset our retiring workers and low birth rates.
Also, when drawing comparisons, bear in mind that Finland currently has a population of just under 5,5 million people. The US population annual growth is about 50% or our total population.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by VLM on Saturday March 05 2016, @03:47PM
I'll pay taxes to fund my grandma or mom in their retirement. Fund some foreigner, eh not so interested. Things may not work out so well for the Finns.
Also Finland without the Finns is just "North Syria". I'm not sure intentional demographic suicide is the ideal evolutionary strategy....
(Score: 1) by bitstream on Sunday March 06 2016, @04:02AM
It's more or less a requirement to have a good education in industrialized countries. And to get a stable economy a permanent job position is also a requirement. To deviate from this is risky economically. So if there's is a genuine interest in keep a sustainable population demographics. The government would need to guarantee the economy and healthcare for young couples that make children. Perhaps something akin to "you get what you pay for" thus no children. And Finland is just like many other well of European countries one with high taxes. So the government can and need to be involved.
Either one pay young couples to reproduce or face the consequences. No freebies! Another factor at play is higher industrialized automation which requires less people so perhaps depopulation is in fact sustainable to a degree. Having kids and doing education and work must also be easier or lest people will shun the whole deal. And while at it, make it way more attractive for highly educated and professionals to produce children so that it won't bias people that have nothing better to do than just reproduce and not care for their children.
So the combined effect of hard education, tough housing and work market, and a dysfunctional social maze puts (young) people off from making children. It's simply doesn't make the cost/benefit calculus for many individuals to work out. What the government(s) has at their hands is an crowd sourced answer to if making children makes personal sense. And importing people that can't reach up to high school level and behave in a highly developed society won't fix the problem. It will aggravate it severely.
(Score: 2) by gnuman on Sunday March 06 2016, @05:53AM
Finland's age pyramid from 1900 to 2060. You can understand why this is a real issue that we have a lot of people not in the the workforce AND needing care. Finland is not alone in this regard, but I believe that our population is "aging most rapidly" in the European Union.
Am I the only one that sees nothing wrong with that age pyramid. It tells me that population is more or less stable.
(Score: 2) by kazzie on Sunday March 06 2016, @09:34AM
There's something wrong with it if you compare its shape with that of the 1900-1950s. Nations' social security systems (pensions, healthcare) were built for the old shape, where a small contribution from a large number of working-age people will be enough to support a small number of elderly people. When a nation's demographics changes so there as many people retired as there are of working age, something's got to change.