Quora Answer: Are There Countries Which Encourage Population Growth?

The following is my answer to a Quora question: “Are there countries which encourage their population to increase?”

There are quite a few nations which do encourage population growth, and that is because their total fertility index is low, and births are unable to sustain population growth.  The vast majority of these nations are developed nations.  A surprising example is China, which is considered a developing nation.  Nations such as Canada, and Germany, are looking to address this via massive influx of immigrants, but that is politically risky in the short term.  Nations such as Japan, due to extreme xenophobia, will not countenance such measures.

Like China, another example, is Singapore, which has one of the lowest fertility rates in the world.  In both cases, population control measures were too successful, and both nations are suffering declining birth rates to the extent that there are not enough young people to support an ageing population.  This low fertility has severe consequences on future productivity, sustainability of the budget, and healthcare cost ramifications.  Besides encouraging citizens to reproduce, many of these nations encourage immigration, which has a political cost.  However, it is necessary to secure long term economic growth, and viability of the tax base.