Thailand scrambles to increase birth rate

Childcare, fertility centres part of plans aiming to showcase joys of family life

Thailand is scrambling to encourage its people to have more babies to arrest a slumping birth rate, offering parents childcare and fertility centres, while also tapping social media influencers to showcase the joys of family life.

The campaign comes as the number of births has dropped by nearly one-third since 2013, when they started declining. Last year saw 544,000 births, the lowest in at least six decades and below the 563,000 deaths – also swollen by coronavirus-related fatalities.

While its demographic path is similar to other Asian economies like Japan or Singapore, as an emerging market relying on cheap labour and a growing middle class the implications for Southeast Asia’s second-biggest economy are far more profound.

“The data reflects a population crisis … where the mindset towards having children has changed,” said Teera Sindecharak, a demography specialist at Thammasat University.

The government recognised a need to intervene, said senior health official Suwannachai Wattanayingcharoenchai.

“We are trying to slow down the decline in births and reverse the trend by getting families that are ready to have children faster,” he said, describing plans to introduce policies so newborns get the full support of the state.

The plans included opening fertility centres, currently limited to Bangkok and other major cities, in 76 provinces and also using social media influencers to back up the message, officials said.

Such policies may come too late for people like Chinthathip Nantavong, 44, who decided not to have children. “Raising one child costs a lot. A semester for kindergarten is already 50,000 to 60,000 baht[ HK$12,000-HK$14,000],” she said.

Thailand is not alone in the region struggling with low fertility rates, but is less wealthy than other countries that have been forced to rely on migrant workers to support their economies.

Analysts said it would be hard to reverse the situation as social conditions have changed and attitudes towards having children are now coloured by concerns over rising debt and elderly care.

Thailand was heading towards becoming a “super-aged society” where the number of people over 60 would account for more than one-fifth of the population, Teera said. About 18 per cent of its population is aged over 60.

The ratio of working-aged to elderly people last year was 3.4, but by 2040 officials forecast it could be 1.7. “The manufacturing sector will face productivity slumps … so we have to develop skilled labour and adopt the use of automated technologies,” the head of the state-planning agency, Danucha Pichayanan, told a recent business forum.