Free Republic

South Korea's shrinking pool of conscripts is causing concerns amid the growing threat from North Korea, prompting the military to mull options to effectively maintain combat readiness with limited resources. In South Korea, all able-bodied men must serve mandatory military service for at least 18 months, while women can volunteer for military duty as officers or non-commissioned officers. The number of military personnel has been on a steady decline over the past decades due to the country's persistently low birth rate, falling below 500,000 for the first time last year. South Korea's total fertility rate-- the number of children that...

During the coming decades, it may become increasingly difficult to induce Americans to help defend any of the increasingly numerous countries with birth rates far too low to replace their population, even if a country in question is democratically governed. There is scant evidence that a country’s having a birth rate far lower than is needed to replace itspopulation now diminishes Americans’ willingness to help it defend itself. US Senator JD Vance, speaking on the Senate floor on February 12 to oppose further US military aid to Ukraine, pointed out that “not a single country – not even the US...

Civic duty was put before pride as North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un was caught openly weeping during a plea to “Dear Mothers” over the need to increase birth rates. Despite globalist glee at the prospect of a diminishing world population, alarm bells have been ringing for years about the impact such developments would have on society. Even in the socialist so-called Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, the problem was not only apparent, but worth crying over. Speaking Sunday from the capital city Pyongyang, Kim addressed the 5th National Meeting of Mothers, back after an 11-year hiatus, insisting that addressing...

Russian President Vladimir Putin is urging women to have as many as eight children as the number of dead Russian soldiers continues to rise in his war with Ukraine, worsening the country's population crisis. Addressing the World Russian People's Council in Moscow on Tuesday, Putin said the country must return to a time when large families were the norm. "Many of our grandmothers and great-grandmothers had seven, eight, or even more children," Putin said. "Let us preserve and revive these excellent traditions. Large families must become the norm, a way of life for all of Russia's people. The family is...

A staggering 46 percent of Pakistani newborns in the “English” city of Bradford are the direct product of cousin marriages, falling from over 60 percent over the past decade, according to the BBC, which has attempted to contextualize inbreeding amongst minority communities. The BBC drew on a recent study entitled “Born in Bradford,” which recruited 2,317 pregnant women from “inner city wards” without regard for their ethnicity between 2007 and 2010 and then another 2,378 mothers between 2016 and 2019. They found that 62 percent of the Pakistani women involved married either their first or second cousin in the first...

Falling fertility rates in the United States will trigger a "calamitous effect" on the economy if it hasn’t already, experts told Fox News Digital. According to CDC data, between 2007 and 2022, the U.S. birth rate fell by 22%. Not a single state reported an increase in birth rates, although some experienced a slower decline than others.

Humanity has never had it better.Especially the couple of billion lucky folks who live in the United States and Canada, Western Europe, and East Asia (including, now, much of China).The details of the miracle that is modern life are worth repeating, since they are the water we swim in and easy to forget.Deaths in childbirth and childhood are nearly nonexistent. People live longer than ever and can expect to be (physically) healthy into their seventies, not stooped by hard farm, industrial, or household labor. War and conscription have largely ended. In Europe and East Asia, all deaths of violence are...

As we’ve covered many times already, China’s economy is struggling, particularly the construction portion which makes up about a quarter of the country’s GDP. Last week while all of us were distracted by the war in Israel, one of China’s major developers missed loan payments and said it would soon default on its debt.The embattled property developer Country Garden said on Tuesday that it was unable to repay a loan and expected to miss upcoming overseas debt payments as a result of plunging sales from China’s spiraling property crisis.The announcement, made on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, is effectively a...

TOKYO -- Up to 42% of Japanese women born in 2005 could end up not having children in their lifetimes, according to a government estimate, a high percentage that could threaten the future of its social security program. Japan's National Institute of Population and Social Security Research gives this estimate for women born in 2005 under its low-birth scenario. In the medium scenario, 33.4% of this group will go through their childbearing years without having kids. In the most optimistic case, the rate will be 24.6%. The percentage is even higher for men, who are more likely to be unmarried...

Birth rates have fallen since the onset of the war as eight million people, mostly women, have left Ukraine. This has sparked fears that the population could drop to very low levels. The war continues to threaten the very existence of Ukraine - not only via bombing but also through falling birth rates. Ukraine reported that its birth rates have fallen and population growth has stumbled, registering a decline. The fall in population began following the Russian invasion of Ukraine on February 24 last year. This led to an exodus of Ukrainian women as Ukrainian men were conscripted to fight...

Day by day, it becomes harder to deny that mass migration aims to erode and ultimately annihilate the unique cultures of local and national communities. Italian Minister of Agriculture, Francesco Lollobrigida, warned that Italy’s low birth rate and an increase in irregular immigration could lead to “ethnic replacement,” sparking anger from the country’s left-wing opposition. The brother-in-law and close political ally of Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s remarks come in response to a recent report which found Italy has one of the world’s lowest birthrates with fewer than 400,000 births in 2022. Lollobrigida’s comments were made at the national congress...

So, last night there was a so-called "mass shooting" event in Dadeville, Alabama. Once again, it was a black celebratory event that got shot up. The Liberals will blame guns. Meanwhile, per the 2018 Alabama Vital Statistics publication, page 14 - the black illegitimate birthrate is 90% for Tallapoosa County. So, I report, and you decide what the problem is - guns or culture.

Russia launched its first huge missile wave on Ukrainian cities in weeks. The missiles killed at least nine civilians and cut electricity supplies in several cities. Ukraine’s military said its forces repelled over a hundred Russian attacks in Bakhmut in the past 24 hours. Meanwhile as the war rages on, the birth rate in Ukraine has dropped sharply since Russia’s invasion. Population of Ukraine is about 43 million and of these about 8 million left after the invasion. From the people who left almost all were women as men have limits on leaving due to conscription. CNBC-TV18’s Sanjay Suri gets...

Californians are having fewer babies, and that will profoundly affect public policy for years to come. Local and state governments need to start planning now to handle the demographic shift. In 2021, the most recent year for which data is available, California’s birthrate was barely half of what it was two decades before. This wasn’t a sudden, unexpected dip. Rather, it reflects a long-term decline. Without net in-migration, the low rate will result in population decline over time. Sonoma and Napa counties already have seen a population decrease due to a host of causes, just as California as a whole...

The following is an overview of Law & Liberty's January forum on the question of demographic decline.Birth rates are falling across the developed world, and China recently joined the list of countries with a declining population.These trends have many governments worrying about shrinking workforces and unsustainable elderly entitlements. In Law & Liberty’s January forum, Lyman Stone argues that those concerns are relatively trivial, compared to the loneliness, infertility, suicide, and addiction that are ravaging American society today.Stone sees strong connections between these maladies and the failure of so many people to marry and have children.Family life can be a source...

Growing up in St. Petersburg, Dasha, a 29-year-old marketer and artist, dreamed of having a “complete family.” Raised by her mother and grandmother, her father left when she was in elementary school. ”I grew up thinking that I would be married and have a family of my own before I turned 25,” she told Fortune. But Russia’s political instability and financial uncertainties have recently led her to renounce having kids. In Dasha’s lifetime, Russian President Vladimir Putin has invaded Ukraine twice; the war’s consequences have taken a heavy toll on everyday Russians like her. Life in Russia has become “too...

A first in Oregon history: More people are dying than being born for the first time in Oregon history. Young people and families with children are fleeing the state. They are fleeing the state because of the high crime, high taxes, and high cost-of-living. Earlier this year, Oregon was among the top 6 highest cost of living states (see below). These empty family homes are quickly bought by a massive of influx of seniors who are fleeing California where things are much worse. The Employment Department estimates that over 40,000 Californians move into Oregon annually. Roughly 1 in 4 Oregonians...

Briahna Joy Gray and Robby Soave react to a judge's blockage of the Title 42 rule used by Presidents Trump and Biden to expel asylum seekers at the Mexican border due to Covid-19.

President Xi Jinping recently vowed to launch comprehensive initiatives to address China’s rapidly declining birth rate.Behind the bombastic rhetoric, however, there lies a truly sobering fact: new policies probably won’t be enough to arrest China’s demographic decline. Here’s why.In China, a hyper-traditional society, having a child out of wedlock is still frowned upon. Childbearing and childrearing are synonymous with marriage. Last year, the communist nation saw marriage rates hit a 35-year low. The sharp drop in marital vows comes at the same time China faces an impending demographic crisis. 2021 saw 7.6 million marriage registrations, the fewest since 1986. With...