Australia’s population has just hit a new high of 24 million. But, as in Britain, Canada, France and elsewhere, the question is what’s driving that population growth. Clarissa Bye reports in the Aussie Daily Telegraph that there are strange discrepancies between the robust fertility rates in certain parts of Sydney (Lakemba, at right) and the dearth of births in others (Surry Hills, Potts Point). As she notes, Lebanese- and Syrian-born residents have an average of four and 3.5 children respectively, whereas Australian-born women have 1.86.
Along the way in Ms Bye’s story, a certain demographic doom-monger puts in an appearance:
IT’S the biggest story of our times, but political correctness has stifled debate so badly that politicians are too afraid to even talk about it.
According to visiting Canadian author and free-speech advocate Mark Steyn, low birth rates have put Western societies into a “demographic death spiral”…
“Normally for a population transformation you need a Black Death, the Plague or a world war,” he said. “But in this case we are having it without any of that. That’s why it’s the most fascinating question of our times.”
People underestimate how fast this change takes place. A small minority having four kids doesn’t sound that big a deal. But, to keep the math simple, take a population of 100,000, 90 per cent of whom have 1.86 kids per woman and 10 per cent of whom have four:
The 90,000 have 83,700 children;
The 10,000 have 20,000 children.
In turn:
The 83,700 have 77,841 children;
The 20,000 have 40,000 children.
And thereafter the minority is the majority. And all that growth is without a single new immigrant.
