As an aside, India's birth rate has been dropping precipitously over the last few decades. In 1960 the birth rate was 5.9 per woman; today it's 2.4 and still falling. India's birth rate is now lower than America prior to 1970. At current trends, the birth rate in India will drop below the replacement rate within a decade.
The world's population growth is screeching to a halt almost universally, even without China-style coercion. This includes India, where the total fertility rate has fallen from >6 in the 1950s to around 2.4 today, and the steady decline is set to continue.
India has a fairly low fertility rate compared to other countries of similar socio economic conditions, it is just that it has a very high population base and most of it is very young.
Also the fertility rate is varies significantly across the country.
If you think about it countries like Saudi, Pakistan and most parts of Africa have the highest fertility rates
The average fertility rate in India is 2.2 now I think. It is below 2 in Southern states and still relatively high in BIMARU states which are the biggest problems.
"Asia" is pretty broad, but India was at 2.2 in 2020 and dropping pretty rapidly; as of earlier this spring it hit 2.0. Note that the Statista numbers are moving 5-year averages, so the "spot" number for India is lower than the number you see on that graph.
> From 1965 to 2009, contraceptive usage has more than tripled (from 13% of married women in 1970 to 48% in 2009) and the fertility rate has more than halved (from 5.7 in 1966 to 2.4 in 2012)
> India's fertility rate has greatly decreased in recent years and is now distinctly below the global rate.
On a historical level fertility rates appear, with the exception primarily of Africa, to be dropping across the board [0]. There's a concise summary by country on present fertility rates on the World Population Review website [1]. Quite a few surprises as well.
It's working everywhere. India dropped below replacement fertility a couple of years ago. The only part of the world left with above replacement growth is sub-Saharan Africa, and even the very highest, like Niger, has seen substantial drops in fertility rates.
If anything we're a few decades away from a rising panic about increasing them again.
"In actuality, India’s TFR is only 2.5—and falling steadily. This figure barely exceeds that of the United States. In 2011, the US fertility rate was estimated at 2.1, essentially the replacement level; a more recent study now pegs it at 1.93. Still, from a global perspective, India and the US fall in the same general fertility category
Birth rates in Africa are already on their slow journey to decline. At the very least they’re dropping. Maybe we can expect a similar trajectory to India that reduced its birth rate from 6 to below replacement rate of 1.9 in about 20 years.
reply