Philippines Fertility Rate at 1.7 and Thailand at 0.9, Both Below Replacement Level

The Philippines’ total fertility rate stands at 1.7 children per woman, below the replacement level of 2.1, csmonitor.com reported June 23. In the 1990s the average Filipina gave birth to four or more children. Thailand’s rate has reached 0.9 in a country of roughly 70 million people.

Two-thirds of the world’s population now lives in nations with birth rates below replacement. ” Projections show that at current rates Thailand’s population could shrink by half in two generations, with more than half of citizens aged 65 and older and children 14 and under making up 3 percent.

Rita Linda Dayrit, former president of the Pro-Life Philippines Foundation, said middle-class couples are prioritizing careers over children.

Tou Manomaiphibul, a Bangkok factory manager, said he and his wife plan to have no more than one child to afford private-school tuition that can exceed $5,000 a year. Sirada Krittayaruesiriwat, a Bangkok bank employee married more than 20 years with no children, said she faces little stigma and prefers her current lifestyle.

A government-affiliated poll found nearly half of childless Thai adults have no plans to raise children.

Piyachart Phiromswad, an economist at Chulalongkorn University’s Sasin Graduate Institute, said Thailand is on track to become one of the first developing countries to experience such an extreme shift in societal structure and called for policies that help middle-aged workers retrain.