Thursday February 26, 8.30pm
The first episode of Baby Boom to Bust profiles four countries all grappling with declining birth rates and potential economic decline. Catholic Italy, a country devoted to family, today has one of the lowest fertility rates in the world. The dying town of Laviano is a portent of what can happen to any community or country when people stop having children. In Japan, where women are increasingly choosing work over marriage, their elders now fear for the future. Meanwhile in Australia, women in their thirties are finding it harder than ever to find a man who’ll commit to a relationship and family, and the trend has spawned a multi-million dollar dating industry. In China the government’s ‘one-child’ policy has taken the country from one extreme to another within a generation. Consequently, an indulged generation of single children, the ‘little emperors’ will one day have the sole responsibility of caring for many elders.
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