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4. Romania
The 1960s in Romania were a perilous time for couples.Population growth flatlined, prompting the government to impose a 20% income tax for childless couples and to implement provisions that made divorce nearly impossible.
The idea was: If you weren’t contributing to the communist state by creating future laborers, you had to contribute with dollars instead.The 1980s weren’t much better, however — women faced forced gynecological exams that were performed by
“demographic command units” to ensure pregnancies went to term. When Romanian leadership changed in 1989, the brutal policy finally came crashing down. But at 1.31 children per woman, the fertility rate is still well below replacement.
5. Singapore
Singapore has the lowest fertility rate in the world, at just 0.81 children per woman.On August 9, 2012, the Singaporean government held National Night, an event sponsored by the breath-mint company Mentos, to encourage couples to “let their patriotism explode.”
The country has also placed a limit on the number of small one-bedroom apartments available for rent to encourage people to live together and, presumably, procreate.
Each year the government spends roughly $1.6 billion on programs to get people to have more s*x.
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6. South Korea
On the third Wednesday of every month, South Korean offices shut their lights off at 7 p.m. It’s known as Family Day.
With a fertility rate of just 1.25 children per woman, the country takes any steps it can to promote family life — even offering cash incentives to people who have more than one child.
7. India
India as a whole has no problem with fertility — the country’s ratio of 2.48 children per woman is well above replacement.But the number of people in India’s Parsis community is dwindling — it shrank from roughly 114,000 people in 1941 to just 61,000 in 2001, according to the 2001 census.
That problem led to a series of provocative ads in 2014, including one that read “Be responsible — don’t use a condom tonight.” Another, geared toward men who lived at home, asked, “Isn’t it time you broke up with your Mum?”
The ads seem to be working: By the latest measure, the population has inched back to 69,000.
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