St. Lucia is experiencing a declining birth rate that has caused grave concern for many in our society including the members of the current administration, local business entities and understandably those responsible for our national pension scheme.
This worrying phenomenon is not unique to St. Lucia. According to Health Minister Moses Jn. Baptiste, the current birth rate locally is as low as 1.6 births per woman. If this is accurate, we are slightly better than the mighty USA whose birth record speaks of 1.57 in 2025.
Interestingly, global fertility fell from 3.3 in 1990 to 2.2 in 2024. Even more interesting, East Asia and Europe experienced what has been described as “ultra-low” fertility while sub-Saharan Africa is expected to see rising populations.
While documents from Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and One World in Data make for an interesting read on the issue, there are real issues attached to this complicated global problem.
Among the many issues emanating from this global problem are an aging population, a labour force stretched to the limit which in turn encourages economic pressure.
There are some who believe, for the prosperity of the world, the rate of global population growth needs to be lowered. In 2010, Bill Gates was quoted as saying “The world today has 6.8 billion people…. Now, if we do a really great job on new vaccines, health care, reproductive health services, we could lower that perhaps 10 or 15 per cent.” Some believed he was speaking about reducing the current global population, others were convinced he was referring to the rate of population growth. Either way, it resonated as a worrying statement.
Global governments are exploring varying ways to encourage higher, responsible birth rates. The Philip J. Pierre administration would do well to do the same before it becomes an absolute dire situation. The are many policies being employed in this respect including improved parental leave, childcare subsidies, and family-friendly workplace policies, some of which have already been installed locally.
Education Minister Kenson Casimir was taken to task recently for comments he made that were seemingly misconstrued, deliberately of otherwise, concerning the local birthrate and dwindling classroom numbers.
Prime Minister Pierre, as part of his 2.18-billion-dollar budget, offered new mothers a one-time, $1000 gift, according to him, to assist with the rising cost of childbirth. He also faced social media backlash from individuals who were convinced he was paying St. Lucians $1000 to make babies.
If we are to be honest, particularly in light of the stated global trend, it is in our best interest as a country to encourage and promote an improved local childbirth rate. How else are we expected to properly maintain at least our national pension scheme?
This is one of the issues facing our country that need not be a political football, particularly at this time. This issue must be met with the future of the nation in sharp focus.
It is inconceivable that any right thinking person will advocate for baby making en mass, rather the conversation needs to be about a carefully structured thought process that encourages individuals who can afford it, to engage in family life.
After all, the bible did say to be fruitful and multiply.