Britain is so beset with immediate problems that major issues, ones which could drastically alter our society and the way we live, are being sidelined. One of these is our plummeting birth rate.
The number of deaths in England and Wales could this year exceed the number of births. Our total fertility rate, at 1.49 children per woman and falling, is far below the 2.1 required to sustain population growth.
Ultimately, we don’t know how to get people to have more children
The economic implications are obvious: in the late 1970s, there were four workers for every dependent person. There are now only three and, all other things being equal, this could drop to two by 2050. Welfare is already ballooning; we are spending £138 billion on the state pension, almost £2,000 per UK citizen. More than two-fifths of national health spending in the UK is devoted to the over-65s.
Onward, the think tank responsible for Rishi Sunak’s national service wheeze, has now launched a new campaign with Mumsnet which it hopes can ‘move the dial’.
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