The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) reports that billions of people worldwide are unable to have the number of children they desire. Among the key reasons for this are the rising costs of raising children and the lack of a suitable partner.
A BBC report states that Natalia Kanem, head of the UNFPA, announced an unprecedented decline in global birth rates.
According to the agency's recent report, Namrata Nangia, who lives in Mumbai, India, shares a household with her husband and five-year-old daughter. Since their daughter's birth, they had been considering having another child. However, the thought of whether they could afford the expenses became a significant concern.
Namrata works for a pharmaceutical company, and her husband is employed at a tire company. In their small household, the cost of raising one child has become increasingly prohibitive. They have to cover school fees, school bus expenses, and the high cost of swimming classes for their child. However, when Namrata herself was growing up, the costs were not so high.
Namrata says, "We just went to school back then. There was no such thing as extracurriculars. But now, we have to send our child to learn swimming. We have to send them to drawing classes. We have to keep an eye on what else they can do."
The agency warns that the situation Namrata faces is increasingly becoming a global trend.
The UNFPA conducted a survey on the desire to have children among 14,000 people across 14 countries. One in five respondents said they either did not have their desired number of children or did not expect to have any children.
The UN Population Fund's survey was conducted in Thailand, Hungary, South Korea, Italy, Germany, Sweden, Brazil, Mexico, India, the United States, Indonesia, Morocco, Nigeria, and South Africa. These countries account for one-third of the world's total population and include low, middle, and high-income nations. The survey targeted young adults and individuals past their reproductive age.
