Europe's population will continue to decline for decades even if birthrates improve significantly, researchers have calculated. Trends towards smaller families and later motherhood mean that there are too few women of childbearing age to reverse the decline in the near future, according to an Austrian study. At present 1.5 babies are born for every European Union woman, when two births are required for the population "replacement rate" to be maintained. Even if women started to have more children again, the tendency to population decline would continue for decades, as there will be fewer parents in the next generation than in this one. The findings come from a study by Wolfgang Lutz, of the Austrian Academy of Science in Vienna, and Brian O'Neill, of the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis in Laxenburg, Austria. The authors said that the changing role of women was a significant factor in the projected population decline. Many were putting off having their first child to concentrate on their education or career. (Agencies) | 據研究人員統計，接下來的幾十年，歐洲人口將持續減少。即便出生率顯著提高也無法改變這一狀況。 據一份來自奧地利的調查表明，家庭規模的減小和婦女生育年齡增大的趨勢導致育齡婦女越來越少，從而無法改變近幾年歐洲人口下降的局面。 目前歐盟國家的婦女平均生1.5個孩子，而為了保持人口替代率，每個婦女至少要生2個孩子。即便從現在開始婦女增加生育數量，人口減少的趨勢仍將持續幾十年，因為我們的下一代中愿意成為父母的人越來越少。 這一結論是由來自位于維也納的奧地利科學院的沃爾夫岡·盧茨和奧地利拉克森堡的國際應用系統分析研究所的布賴恩·奧尼爾調查得出的。 研究者說人口下降的主要原因是婦女在社會中扮演的角色發生了變化。許多婦女為了工作或教育而推遲生育。 （中國日報網站譯） |
Updated: 2003-04-02 01:00
