6.2.3

Population Policies

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Pro-natalist and Anti-natalist Government Policies

Government policies, on how many babies people should have, can affect the population growth of a country. Pro-natalist policies encourage people to have more children, anti-natalist policies do the opposite.

Pro-natalist

Pro-natalist

  • Pro-natalist policies are used by some countries to encourage couples to have more children.
  • Pro-natalist policies can be successful but factors beyond offering financial rewards are normally more important.
    • E.g. France had a pro-natalist policy (“Code de la famille”) that started in 1939.
Code de la famille

Code de la famille

  • Families were given incentives like:
    • Paid up to £1064 for having a third child.
    • Three-child families were given family allowances to increase their buying power.
    • Mothers were given maternity pay (at nearly full pay) for 20 weeks for their first child and for 40 weeks or more for a third child.
    • Preferential treatment when bidding for council flats with three bedrooms.
    • Three-child families got a 30% fare reduction on all public transport.
    • Mothers and housewives received a full pension scheme.
Anti-natalist policies

Anti-natalist policies

  • Anti-natalist policies have been used by some countries to actively discourage people from having children.
  • Anti-natalist policies aim to reduce the country’s population.
  • E.g. China introduced the ‘One Child Policy’ in 1979.
China's One Child Policy

China's One Child Policy

  • Incentives:
    • Parents of one child received larger pensions.
    • Only children received the best education for free.
  • Penalties for having more than one child:
    • Parents had their benefits taken away.
    • The family’s income was fined by up to 15%.
    • Abortions became compulsory for a second pregnancy, and there was a lot of worry that many of these were forced abortions.
  • The legal age of marriage was raised to 22 for men and to 20 for women, and they had to have state permission.
Impacts of the One Child Policy

Impacts of the One Child Policy

  • It worked. 300 million births were prevented and China's population has stabilised at 1.4 billion people.
  • Problems:
    • Accusations that China violated human rights with forced abortions and causing female infanticide because people would rather have a male child.
    • The current ratio of men to women is 118:100.
    • The current fertility rate (1.6) is below the replacement rate of 2.1, leading to an ageing population.
    • By 2040, the ratio of worker to retiree will be 2:1.
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Paper 1 - Changing River Environnments

2

Paper 1 - Changing Coastal Environments

3

Paper 1 - Changing Ecosystems

4

Paper 1 - Tectonic Hazards

5

Paper 1 - Climate Change

6

Paper 2 - Changing Populations

7

Paper 2 - Changing Towns & Cities

8

Paper 2 - Development

9

Paper 2 - Changing Economies

10

Paper 2 - Resource Provision

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