Fertility - Impact on Population (australia)

Fertility - impact on population (Australia)

Fertility is one of the major challenges in Australia population. One out of six couples are suffering of infertility. Mostly they have a problem of the inability to keep pregnancies until childbearing. Technological changes and far-reaching are the reason that fertility declining occur in Australia, also happen in other developed counties. For prediction, if fertility rate per women fell down to 1.3 babies, the rate of the excess of births over deaths would decrease. The population in Australia growth would continue while the large of female of reproductive age having children remain the same. In 2039, there would have 23.2 million of Australia’s population then it would decline to 22.9 million in 2051 and even less in 2101 around 19.0 million. This circumstance shows that Australia’s position in the Asia Pacific area could have economic downward by decreasing and smaller population.              

There is assumption that the total fertility rate could reach 1.6 children per woman, lead to increasing 25.4 million in 2051. Thus the fertility rate of 1.6 babies per woman would stay in long tern in the size of Australia’s population and this has been discuss that Australian fertility could stay the same level.  

Explanations of fertility decline have centred around the far-reaching social and technological changes that have occurred in Australia, as in other developed countries, since the mid-20th century. The late 1960s and early 1970s saw major changes in access to birth control and abortion. In particular, the oral contraceptive pill became available in the mid-1960s, following which the total fertility rate fell to 2.9 babies per woman in the years 1966-71. Accompanied by changing laws and attitudes surrounding the role of women in society, these changes allowed women greater reproductive choice and greater freedom to pursue education and employment. As a result, female participation in the labour force increased dramatically in the late 1960s and early 1970s (see Australian Social Trends 1998, Trends in women's employment). The further slump in fertility during the 1970s, which saw the total fertility rate fall below replacement level, is largely attributed to this factor, along with changing views on family size and standards of living.