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The number of births registered in Japan plummeted to another record low last year -- the latest worrying statistic in a decades-long decline that the country's authorities have failed to reverse despite their extensive efforts. The country saw 799,728 births in 2022, the lowest number on record and the first ever dip below 800,000, according to statistics released by the Ministry of Health on Tuesday. That number has nearly halved in the past 40 years; by contrast, Japan recorded more than 1.5 million births in 1982. Japan also reported a record high for post-war deaths last year, at more than...

HARRISBURG — The American population might be growing, but Pennsylvania remains a leading state for Americans to flee, rather than stay. The commonwealth is one of 18 states to lose population in 2022, according to new data from the Census Bureau, and one of the worst performers. The data is confirmation of a long-running trend: Pennsylvania has a population problem, and the end isn’t yet in sight. The latest Census data shows the American population grew by 1.26 million (0.4%) since a year ago, with the primary growth being more than 1 million immigrants landing on American soil. Natural change...

Beijing, China (LifeNews.com) -- Chinese attorneys are risking their own freedom by pressing for the release of an activist against forced abortions detained by local officials in the eastern Chinese city of Linyi. They have released an open letter calling for authorities to release Chen Guangcheng, who has been under house arrest for the last month after exposing the brutal forced abortion and sterilization tactics of population control officials. The letter comes at a time when Chen may be charged with passing on government secrets because of an interview he conducted with Time magazine about the scandal. Chen said that...

With hospital births becoming increasingly unattractive as a result of COVID-19 protocols, many women are beginning to consider home births as an alternative. When I decided to have my third baby at home, I did so because I felt that a home birth with an experienced midwife would be the safest place for labor and delivery. My first two children were born in a large, Boston teaching hospital, and medical interventions there caused complications for me. My last two children were born at home, on their own time, with no interventions and no complications. You can read more about my...

The United States saw a 7% decline in its national childbirth rate in 2020, the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a study published Monday. The drop in the domestic crude birth rate -- or the ratio between the number of live births in a population during a given year and the total mid-year population for the same year -- mirrored similar trends in western Europe, researchers said in the study, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The crude birth rate in Italy fell by 9% last year, while Spain saw an 8% drop and...

Orbán and Estonian deputy prime minister meet in BudapestBUDAPEST, Hungary (ChurchMilitant.com) - Hungarian President Viktor Orbán's mission to protect Christian culture is moving up toward the Baltic. The Hungarian president met with Mart Helme, Estonian deputy prime minister, minister of the interior and chairman of the Conservative People's Party of Estonia (EKRE) to build new alliances between Hungary and the Baltic states. The talks occurred in the Carmelite monastery next to the presidential palace in the Castle District of Budapest on July 8. Toward the goal of protecting Christian values, the two leaders agree that national control of external borders...

China has raised the number of children each couple can have to three from two. The move is a major bid to reverse the country's falling birth rate and turn around an aging population in the world's most populous nation.China scrapped its longstanding one-child policy in 2016 in favor of a two-child limit, but that didn't spark a continued rise in births. The one-child policy was started in 1979 to halt a population explosion.

The birth rate and fertility rate in the United States fell to a new historic lows in 2020 although some believed the pandemic would lead to a baby boom, according to a provisional report from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's National Center for Health Statistics. The drop is related to the pressures from the COVID-19 pandemic but larger social factors are also contributing to the precipitous decline in births, some say. The CDC announced last week in a May Vital Statistics Rapid Release that the provisional number of births in the U.S. in 2020 was over 3.6...

How can America be great in the future with fewer babies every year? In the long term, no way, José. The average number of kids per U.S. woman has dropped from 2.12 in 2007 to 1.71 in 2019, the lowest ever. In the case of whites, it's 1.61. This baby deficit continues to grow, and with it, America's greatness potential shrinks. The U.S. share of world births is one third less than in 1960. This looks good only compared to Europe, where the decline is one half less. Immigrants haven't provided a sufficient solution to the social undermining that entails...

With most of the Western world forced into #stayathome quarantine over the COVID pandemic, could we see a new 'baby boom' this winter, nine months after the shutdown that covered most of the Americas and Europe? Young men and women sheltered in place with "nothing to do" has always seemed to be a recipe for an increase in sexual activity. With 315,000 estimated worldwide deaths (source: New York Times) which seem to be largely the elderly and health-compromised, will the world be quickly replacing the lost with toddlers in 7-10 months? The answer is likely "yes" but not necessarily so....

Close to 400,000 anchor babies were born in the United States in 2019 as an executive order to end birthright citizenship gets kicked down the road for another year by President Donald Trump’s administration. Analysis conducted by the Center for Immigration Studies revealed in 2018 that about 300,000 U.S.-born children of illegal aliens are born every year. These children, often referred to as “anchor babies,” immediately obtain American citizenship and anchor their illegal or foreign parents in the country. In addition, about 72,000 anchor babies are born to foreign tourists, foreign visa workers, and foreign students every year — all...

With increasing rates of infertility and higher average rates of maternal age, people are turning to assisted reproductive technologies (ART) like in vitro fertilization (IVF) more than ever. More than 8 million babies have been born since the first IVF pregnancy in 1978. Recognizing the emotional agony of dealing with trouble conceiving, it makes sense why IVF is becoming so widely used. IVF provides a glimmer of hope for couples who have faced numerous cycles of negative pregnancy tests. But recently, some light has been shed on less positive aspects of the ART industry, revealing inflated success rates, maternal and...

America's fertility rate and the number of births nationwide are continuing to decline. The number of births for the United States last year dropped to its lowest in about three decades, according to provisional data in a new report from the National Center for Health Statistics at the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. "Even though the number of births we've seen in 2018 is the lowest that we've seen in 32 years, the total fertility rate is at a record low," said Brady Hamilton, a natality expert at the center and first author of the report.

According to recent media accounts, America is in a population death spiral. Open-borders activists have seized on the narrative to promote ever-looser immigration policies.But the narrative is wrong.In fact, women in the U.S. are more likely to be mothers than in the past, and they are having more children, reports the Pew Research Center.The Pew study found that women have 2.07 children during their lives on average – up from 1.86 in 2006, the lowest on record. Family size is also up. In 2016, mothers at the end of their childbearing years had had about 2.42 children, compared with 2.31...

LUXEMBOURG, July 12, 2018 (LifeSiteNews) – The native-born population of the European Union (EU) is on the decline thanks to more deaths than births in 2017, new government figures reveal. On Tuesday, the European Union’s statistics office Eurostat released a report on the latest population data, just in time for World Population Day on Wednesday. It reveals that the EU saw 5.3 million deaths and 5.1 million births in 2017. The overall population increased from 511.5 million to 512.6 million, however, thanks to immigrants making up the difference. “With 82.9 million residents (or 16.2% of the total EU population on...

The speed with which the German population is shrinking seems to be even too much for the statisticians of Destatis, the official German bureau of statistics, who posit that by 2060, with a zero level of net immigration, the German population will have declined to 60.2 million. However, our research team has found out that this number is far too optimistic: in 40 years Germany will have a population of 52.6 million people, a considerable 34% drop from the current 81 million inhabitants, and by the end of the century the native German population, the indigenous people without a migration...

(CNSNews.com) - In 24 of the nation’s 50 states at least half of the babies born during the latest year on record had their births paid for by Medicaid, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation. New Mexico led all states with 72 percent of the babies born there in 2015 having their births covered by Medicaid. Arkansas ranked second with 67 percent; Louisiana ranked third with 65 percent; and three states—Mississippi, Nevada and Wisconsin—tied for fourth place with 64 percent of babies born there covered by Medicaid. New Hampshire earned the distinction of having the smallest percentage of babies born...

For decades, first the Soviet Union and then Russia languished under adverse population trends. Deaths far outpaced births, life expectancy was dismally low, and social ills, from alcoholism to unsafe abortion practices, were rampant. Over the past several years, however, this demographic picture has somewhat brightened. In 2012, live births outnumbered deaths for the first time since the collapse of the Soviet Union. That indicator has remained marginally positive, and others have also begun to improve. By 2013, Russia’s average life expectancy reached a historic high, at 71 years, and birthrates nearly matched European averages. These reversals have been modest,...

More New Yorkers are keeping their nests empty. The city’s birth rate is the lowest since 1936 — having steadily declined over the past decade, according to data obtained by The Post. “This is a very troubling trend,” said Conservative Party state chairman Mike Long. “The economy is hurting families and the development of families.” “If we don’t produce enough young people, society won’t be able to pay for Social Security and Medicaid,” he warned.

The health care law has opened up an unusual opportunity for some mothers-to-be to save on medical bills for childbirth. Lower-income women who signed up for a private policy in the new insurance exchanges will have access to additional coverage from their state’s Medicaid program if they get pregnant. Some women could save hundreds of dollars on their share of hospital and doctor bills. Medicaid already pays for nearly half of U.S. births, but this would create a way for the safety-net program to supplement private insurance for many expectant mothers. Officials and advocates say the enhanced coverage will be...