an impact in the long run. people may choose to have a child earlier, but ultimately, this does not increase the nation's fertility rate. this pattern has also been observed in other countries, family study expert anne gauthier of the university of groningen told the bbc. in italy's case, the subsidy does not address economic concerns or social attitudes. population pyramid of greece in 2018 greece's heavy demographic aging comes as a result of economic hardship which has prompted many young people to leave the country in search of better opportunities elsewhere. between 2009 and 2018, about half a million people left the country, many of them of child-bearing age. in 2010, 115,000 children were born; that number dropped to 92,000 in 2015, and then to below 89,000 in 2017, the lowest on record. in 2019, the fertility rate fell to just 1.3 per woman, well below the replacement level and one of the lowest in europe. some of the more remote regions of greece suffer from shortages of obstetricians and gynecologists, many of whom have gone abroad, which deters would-be parents. in general, the greeks are having children later and having fewer children in the 2010s compared to the 1980s. the spanish national institute of statistics reported that the number of babies born in spain in 2018 was the lowest since 1998 and a 40.7% drop compared to 2008. this is due to the fact that there were fewer women of childbearing age in spain than in the past, and that modern spaniards are having fewer children. in portugal, the fertility rate dropped to 1.3 in the late 2010s. across southern europe, about 20% of women born in the 1970s are childless, a number not seen since the first world war. more and more schools have been forced to close and many towns are becoming empty. southern europe could become countries of old people by the late 2030s (when people born in the early 2010s and mid-2020s come of age) if the current trend continues. hungary's birth rate was about 1.48 in 2018. for the government of prime minister viktor orban, which favors "procreation over immigration," raising the national fertility rate is a matter of "strategic importance." in december 2018, the hungarian government nationalized six fertility clinics and said it would offer free in vitro fertilization (ivf) treatment starting february 2020, though the details of who would be eligible for this program remain unclear. like other eastern european countries, hungary faces a declining population not just due to its low birth rate, now half of what it was in 1950, but also to emigration to western europe. about one in every seven hungarian children was born outside hungary in the 2010s. population pyramid of russia in 2018 the united nations population division projected that russia, which had a birth rate of 1.75 in 2018, would find its population drop from 143 million down to 132 million by 2050. russia's population has been on the decline since the 1990s, following the collapse of the soviet union. another reason for russia's demographic decline is the nation's low life expectancy for men, at only 64 years in 2015, or 15 years less than that in italy, germany, or sweden. this is due to a combination of unusually high rates of alcoholism, smoking, untreated cancer, tuberculosis, suicides, violence, and hiv/aids. although previous attempts to raise the birth rate have failed, in 2018, president vladimir putin proposed giving money to low-income families, first-time mothers, families with many children, and the creation of more nurseries. this is part of a massive spending package aimed at revitalizing the struggling russian economy. throughout the 2000s, france maintained a fertility rate of about 2.0, but from the early 2010s onward, the country has seen its fertility rate falling gradually. despite recent declines, france retains one of the highest birth rates in europe at 1.92 in 2017, according to the world bank. while many countries have introduced policies intended to incentivize people to have more children, these might be counter-balanced by other policies, such as taxes. in france, the ministry of families is solely responsible for family and child benefits packages, which are more generous for larger families. germany's fertility rate rose from 1.33 in 2006 to 1.57 in 2017, moving the country away from spain and italy and closer to the e.u. average. this is due to a few reasons. older women were having children, which caused the rate to increase slightly. new immigrants, who arrived in germany in great numbers in that decade, tend to have more children than natives, though their children will likely assimilate into german society and will have smaller families of their own than their parents and grandparents. in the former west germany, working mothers were once stigmatized, but this is no longer the case in unified germany. in the late 2000s and early 2010s, the german federal government introduced more generous parental leave, encouraged fathers to take (more) time off, and increased the number of nurseries, to which the government declared children over one year old were entitled to. although the supply of nurseries remained insufficient, the number of children enrolled in them rose from 286,000 in 2006 to 762,000 in 2017. population pyramid of sweden in 2018 in sweden, generous pro-natalist policies contribute to the nation having a birth rate of 1.9 in 2017, which was high compared to the rest of europe. swedish parents are entitled to 480 days of parental leave to share between both parents, with fathers claiming on average 30% of the amount. according to the european commission, sweden has one of the lowest child poverty rates in the e.u. nevertheless, sweden's birth rate has begun to fall in the late 2010s. one of the reasons why sweden has maintained a relatively high birth rate is because the country has for decades been accepting immigrants, who tend to have more children than the average swede. other nordic countries face the same situation. denmark, norway, finland, and iceland all saw their fertility rates decline in the late 2010s to between 1.49 and 1.71 from previously near replacement level, although their economies had already recovered from the great recession by that time. "the number of childless individuals is growing rapidly, and the number of women having three or more children is going down. this kind of fall is unheard of in modern times in finland," family sociologist anna rotkirch told afp. according to statistics finland, the total fertility rate of that country in 2019 was 1.35, the lowest on record. causes for this decline include financial uncertainty, urbanization, rising unemployment, declining median income, and high cost of living. falling fertility rates jeopardize the much prized nordic welfare systems. generous parental benefits, including subsidized childcare, have proven ineffective in halting the demographic decline. according to a 2020 report from nordic council of ministers, the finns were aging at a faster rate than any of their counterparts in the nordic region. statistics finland predicted in 2019 that given current trends in fertility and migration, finland's population would begin to decline by 2031. population pyramid of the faroe islands in 2018 according to the world bank, the faroe islands had a birth rate of about 2.5 in 2018, one of the highest in europe, a position they have maintained for decades. like the rest of the nordic region, the territory has implemented a variety of family-friendly policies, such as 46 weeks of parental leave, numerous and cheap kindergartens, and tax cuts, including one for seven-seat vehicles. but unlike the rest of the nordic region, its urbanization rate is far lower. accordingly, traditional family values and family ties remain strong. sociologist hans pauli strøm of statistics faroe islands told the afp, "in our culture, we perceive a person more as a member of a family than as an independent individual. this close and intimate contact between generations makes it easier to have children." in addition, women's workforce participation is comparatively high, at 82%, compared to an average of 59% for the european union, of which the islands are not a member. more than half of faroese women work part-time as a matter of personal choice rather than labor-market conditions. the autonomous danish territory in the north atlantic, in fact, had a prosperous economy, as of the 2010s. in 2018–19, ireland had the highest birth rate and the lowest death rate in the european union, according to eurostat. although ireland had a thriving economy in the mid- to late-2010s, only 61,016 babies were born here in 2018 down from 75,554 in 2009. ireland's birth rate fell from 16.8 in 2008 to 12.6 in 2018, a drop of about a quarter. the average age of first-time mothers in ireland was 32.9 in 2018, up by over two years compared to the mid-2000s. between 2006 and 2016, the number of babies born to women in their 40s doubled while that to teenagers fell by 52.8%. economist edgar morgenroth of dublin city university told the irish times that one of the reasons behind ireland's falling fertility rate was the fact that ireland had a baby burst in the 1980s after a baby boom in the 1970s, and the people born in the 1980s were starting families in the 2010s. he further explained that high housing and childcare costs could be behind irish couples' reluctance. the marriage rate was 4.3 per 1,000 in 2018, the lowest since 1997 even though same-sex marriages were included. in addition, people were getting married later. in 2018, the average age at first marriage for a man was 36.4, up from 33.6 in 2008; for a woman, those figures were 34.4 and 31.7, respectively. usually, rising birth and marriage rates correspond to a healthy economy, but the present statistics seem to have buckled that trend. as of 2016, ireland was, demographically, a young country by european standards. however, the country is aging quite quickly. according to the central statistics office, although ireland had more people below the age of 14 than above the age of 65 in 2016, the situation could flip by 2031 in all projected scenarios, which will pose a problem for public policy. for instance, ireland's healthcare system, already operating on a tight budget, will be under even more pressure. population pyramid of the united kingdom in 2018 england and wales were experiencing a baby boom in the early 2010s which peaked in 2012. with more children being born in the uk between the middle of 2011 and the middle of 2012 than any year since 1972. however, fertility rates declined as the decade progressed. according to the united kingdom office for national statistics, the fertility rates of england and wales fell to a record low in 2018. moreover, they fell for women of all age groups except those in their 40s. a total of 657,076 children were born in england and wales in 2018, down 10% from 2012. 1977 and 1992-2002 were the only years where these jurisdictions had lower fertility rates on record. as has been the case since the start of the new millennium, the birth rate of women below the age of 20 continues to fall, down to 11.9 in 2018. before 2004, women in their mid- to late-20s had the highest fertility rate, but between the mid-2000s and the late-2010s, those in their early- to mid-30s held that position. social statistician and demographer ann berrington of the university of southampton told the guardian that access to education, "changing aspirations" in life, the availability of emergency and long-acting contraception, and the lack of affordable housing were among the reasons behind the decline in fertility among people in their 20s and 30s. if women were merely delaying childbirth, the fertility of women in their 20s would decline while that of women in their 30s would rise. but this was not the case in the late 2010s. women in their 40s saw a slight increase, but they accounted for only 5% of all births in the same period. immigrants have contributed to this decline. whereas previously they tended to have more children on average than native britons and were indeed above replacement level, their fertility rate in england and wales dropped from 2.46 in 2004 to 1.97 in 2020. in other words, the proportions of births