Dramatic Drop in Native Birth Rates : Nations Worry if Europe Will Be European in 30 Years

Europe is worried about running out of Europeans.

Faced with declining birth rates, the continent’s average age is going up. In some countries, it is an issue of official concern expressed by programs to encourage couples to have more children. It also is an issue in which some see racist influences.

The reasons for the declining birth rate are as varied as the number of countries involved, ranging from concerns about money and housing to divorce and basic social attitudes about children.

For the 10-nation European Community to keep its population at current levels, women of reproductive age must have an average of 2.1 children. However, only in Ireland is it higher, at 2.9. Elsewhere, the figures range from 1.8 in France to 1.3 in West Germany.

Dramatic Drop

According to statistics from the community, the number of births per 1,000 people has decreased from 18.0 in 1960 to 12.2 in 1982, while the death rate has changed little, from 10.8 in 1960 to 10.5 in 1982.

The problem is most pronounced in West Germany, where the population has fallen from 58.31 million in 1972 to just over 56 million today. To reverse the trend, legislation is being considered to increase maternity leave.

“In the interest of a secure future, we cannot stand idly by and accept this situation,” said Horst Waffenschmidt, junior minister in the Interior Ministry.

West Germany has had to increase the period of mandatory military service from 15 months to 18 months to offset declining draft rolls.

Complex Theories

Sociologists have offered complex theories about the problem: nuclear threat and Germany’s front-line position in the East-West conflict. However, one British parent living in Germany says: “Germans just don’t like children.” There is even a word for the phenomenon, kinderfiendlichkeit, which means “hostility to children.”

The campaign for couples to have more children is most evident in France, where three billboard companies last summer pasted up 11,000 posters urging the French to have more babies. President Francois Mitterrand has also created a Population Council to promote the family.

Mitterand urged the council to be “open and generous” in immigration questions. However, right-wing leader Jean-Marie Le Pen of the National Front Party sees a growing immigrant population as a major threat at a time when the native French birth rate is falling. He has proposed a referendum on whether immigrants should receive government help to go back home.

Concern Called Racist

A recent article in Le Figaro Magazine titled “Will We Still Be French in 30 Years?” caused a storm when it suggested that France’s non-European population is growing at a rate that threatens France’s culture, values and identity. Three government officials, including Prime Minister Laurent Fabius, condemned it as provocative and racist.

In Britain, Harold Brooks-Baker, publishing director of Burke’s Peerage, also expressed concern about birth rates in the United Kingdom, except among the aristocracy.

“Here in Britain, only the upper classes are breeding at the rate they were 10 years ago,” he said. “At least 2.1 babies per woman are needed to keep up the nation’s numbers. Ten years ago, we were comfortably on or above that level. Now we are down to 1.75.”

Soviets Feeling Pinch

The decline is not exclusive to Western Europe. Rates are down throughout Eastern Europe and the European part of the Soviet Union.

Although there has been an increase in the population of the U.S.S.R.’s Asian republics, its European states have lagged behind as couples have only one child or break up in divorce.

“People want to live for themselves these days,” said one Soviet worker.

The government, however, wants to see three children per family and is offering incentives, including special certificates allowing mothers with many children to move ahead in queues at stores, offers of separate three-room apartments, cash payments and special loans.