Population problems The Largest demographic issue facing Sweden right now is a birth dearth, or a low birth rate. Sweden also has a very high life expectancy. These two factors combined mean that Sweden has very many old people and too few children (PRB).
The low fertility rate in Sweden is because women work in professions, and this means that they usually spend their potential childbearing years getting a University education and starting their career. This means that by the time they get around to having children, they have less time to do it. Women in professions also affects the fertility rate becase having children will affect your lifestyle, and so many women choose to have small families. A result of this is that there is not much of a young dependency load (this paragraph from human geography index). Despite that, there is a high dependency load because there is a low death rate, and a high life expectancy. There are many elderly people, who rely on government pensions. Because there are so few children, there will be a smaller workforce and tax base in a few years, and taxes will increase dramatically so that the enormous dependency load can be supported by the small working age community (human geography index and Wikipedia). In Sweden, in about 20 or 30 years there will be a lack of working age people. Essentially, the largest demographic problem in Sweden is the combination of a low birth rate and low death rate. This creates a massive aged population. (PRB) |
A population pyramid for Sweden, year 2009
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The Swedish birthday party: a problem with the 1 child society
Here is some food for thought:
There is a 1 year old in Sweden having his 1st birthday
Who will come to his party?
Brothers and sisters? He has none
Cousins? His parents are only children too, so they have no brothers and sisters
Parents? 2
Grandparents? 4
Great grandparents? Probably 1 or 2
So…
In 30 years, how many of them will be on pensions?
How many will be in the workforce?