For the past week we have been discussing the demographics of the world, analyzing countries like Japan and the United State and its relation one key concept in demography related to the growth and decline of population: the dependency ratio - a measure showing the number of dependents (aged 0-14 and over the age of 65) to the total population (aged 15-64). All of demography can be reduced to this very simple formula: (Births-Deaths) +/- ((In-Migration)-(Out Migration))=Population Change. Currently both Japan and the U.S are both experiencing an issue of low birth rates within their countries. Japan’s government placed regulations on how many children can be born to a family in order to control the issue the country is having with over population. The regulations placed on its people seemed to have worked well, but now Japan is working to come up with incentives that encourage the people of Japan to date, find love, and have children. No relationships equal no love in which mean any babies, or youngsters to grow create a young, vibrant, Japan. The U.S is seeing a similar problem; they aren’t producing enough children to later sustain the elders of the country. There is talk about changes being made to the SSI Act. The U.S government has mentioned expanded the SSI Act age range. With so few young people in this country it is becoming hard to support the elders or in other words, it is becoming harder and harder for Senior citizens to get their Social Security checks.

As  I was conducting research on this week’s current events I ran across a numerous amount of articles written on the rising Brazil’s issue of low birth rates. The news about Brazil’s plummeting fertility rate is amazing.  According to an article written by World Geography, the a few decades ago, the rate was 5.3 children per woman; today, it is about 1.9. Experts predict the rate will be 1.5 children per woman by 2030. From the previous discussions that we have had in class and the information that we have talked about I know that the possible results of this issue will not be good in the end and will need possible solutions. If Brazil keeps going at the rate that’s its going with is low birth rates can go down the same road that Japan is going down. That is that the birth rates are so low that there aren’t any young people to continue to run Japan’s society, now they paying their citizens to have children because they are who are going to save Japans government. Or they can be like the U.S not has enough young people in its society to support the elderly.

 But unlike Japan the U.S Brazils’s reasons for its low birth rates have much to do with the women of the country. According to the article there a combination of causes that have led women of all social classes to challenge tradition and limit the size of their families. Brazil’s booming economy is key to this development. Women have more opportunities for careers in the growing cities, where families don’t need numerous children to work as farmhands. Improved health care assures women they don’t need to have more babies to replace those that die. Advances in Brazil’s pension system assure parents they don’t have to depend on additional children to support them in their old age. Brazil’s women also have plenty of role models to inspire them to move away from the traditional role of motherhood and toward more independence. Brazil’s newly elected president is a woman, there are high-ranking female officers in the military, and special police stations are run for and by women.

 http://hmcurrentevents.com/brazilian-womens-power-leads-to-falling-birth-rate/