DINKS

 

DINKS Dual Income but No kids

After living in Ottawa for almost thirty years I have many friends who have chosen either not to have children or to have possibly one child. They are DINKS - dual income with no kids.
The result has manifest itself last year.
Canada's population fell for the first time since confederation 

Statisically the count should have fallen sooner but was being propped up through immigration. The drop was about 100,000, the size of a small city.

Planetwide its the same problem -static  or low growth population.
• China: Largest absolute decline — net loss of ~3.2–3.3 million (–0.22% to –0.23%).
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• Japan: ~ –0.55% (loss of hundreds of thousands).
• Russia: ~ –0.42% (loss of ~600,000).
worldometers.info
• Germany: ~ –0.51% (loss of ~430,000).
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• Italy, Poland, South Korea, Thailand, Spain: Smaller but notable declines (–0.1% to –0.8%).
Subsaharan Africa and SE Asia continue to balance the drops.

The truth? Canadians are not having children at replacement levels. It has become too expensive to have a family, own a home, get a degree, and its showing up in the statistics.
Jobs are scarce: people are moving from the hinterland into the cities.

You do not need to be a weatherman to know which way the wind is blowing.  The trend is down with no obvious resolution.

My recommendation? When a couple wants to be married do not charge for it, no license fees please, instead, give them a free night at the Chateau Laurier and a bottle of wine.

Find a way to give young families an affordable place to live, care for their school age children because this population drop trend is a threat to the very fabric of Canadian society.

Current events are are portending future trends.