high cost of raising a child, high youth unemployment, the burden of childcare on career-minded women, a stressful education system, and high levels of competition in korean society. in south korea, because marriage is usually associated with child-rearing, it is extremely rare for children to be born out of wedlock. that figure stood at 1.9% as of 2017. by contrast, in some other developed countries, such as france and norway, it is not uncommon for children to be born to unmarried couples, at 55% or higher. government figures show that the average age at first marriage for women climbed from 24.8 in 1990 to 30.2 in 2018 while the age of first birth was 31.6. according to statistics korea, women who give birth to their first child in their early 30s are unlikely to have more than one. in korea's traditionalist society, new mothers face discrimination in the work force, and as such delaying childbirth becomes commonplace. such a low fertility rate endangers the nation's welfare programs (including healthcare and pensions), and causes more and more schools to close. it also has implications for national security, as the south korean military relies on conscription to confront north korean threats. population pyramid of taiwan in 2018 according to the national development council of taiwan (ndc), the nation's population could start shrinking by 2022 and the number of people of working age could fall by 10% by 2027. about half of taiwanese would be aged 50 or over by 2034. according to the ndc, taiwan reached the stage of being an aging society—one in which the number of people aged 65 and above is about 7%—in 1993. like south korea, taiwan has since moved from being an aging society to an aged one, where the number of elderly people exceeds 14% of the total population. it therefore took the country 25 years to make this demographic transition, compared to 17 years in south korea. during the 2010s, taiwan's fertility rate hovered just above 1.0, making it one of the lowest in the world. in fact, data from the ministry of the interior shows the fertility rate has consistently been below 1.5 since 2001. (in 2010, taiwan's fertility rate actually fell below 1.0 because it was thought to be a bad year to have children in, the previous year having been considered inauspicious for marriage.) many couples still live with their parents, and the older generation expects women to stay at home, take care of children, and do house chores. stipends and subsidies from the government have been unsuccessful in encouraging more people to reproduce, but the government has added more money for childcare, education, and birth subsidies. the government is also considering immigration policies that attract highly skilled workers from other countries, and making english an official language. at the current rate, taiwan is set to transition from an aged to a super-aged society, where 21% of the population is over 65 years of age, in eight years, compared to seven years for singapore, eight years for south korea, 11 years for japan, 14 for the united states, 29 for france, and 51 for the united kingdom. as of 2018, japan was already a super-aged society, with 27% of its people being older than 65 years. according to government data, japan's total fertility rate was 1.43 in 2017. according to the institute for health metrics and evaluation, japan has one of the oldest populations in the world, with a median age of 47 years in 2017. southeast asia population pyramid of singapore in 2018 singapore's total fertility rate continues to decline in the 2010s, as more and more young people are choosing to delay or eschew marriage and parenthood. it reached 1.14 in 2018, making it the lowest since 2010 and one of the lowest in the world. reasons for this include long work hours, digital disruption, uncertainties surrounding global trade, climate change, high cost of living, and long wait times for public housing. the median age for first-time mothers rose from 29.7 in 2009 to 30.6 in 2018, which poses a problem because fertility declines with age. meanwhile, the death rate has been increasing since 1998; singapore now faces an aging population. in fact, singapore's birth rate has been below the replacement level of 2.1 since the 1980s, and appears to have stabilized during the first two decades of the twenty-first century. government incentives such as the baby bonus have proven insufficient to raise the birth rate. the number of women in their prime childbearing years (25–29) who remained single increased from 60.9% in 2007 to 68.1% in 2017. for men, the corresponding numbers were 77.5% and 80.7%, respectively. in singapore, the singleness rate is a major determinant of fertility because only 10% of married couples have no children at all. while it is not unusual for men to marry late because they are expected to have established themselves before getting married and to be the primary breadwinner, one major reason why women are marrying later is because higher education eliminates the need to get married for economic survival. at the 2019 forbes global ceo conference, prime minister lee hsien loong said that one of the top issues facing his country is finding the right demographic balance. "to secure our future, we must make our own babies, enough of them. because if all of the next generation are not our own, then where do they come from and what is the point of this?" he said. lee added that the long-term goal of his government is to maintain a workforce that is two-thirds singaporean, with the rest being brought in from overseas. he argued that such a ratio is manageable while relaxing immigration restriction would be "unwise" because "there is no shortage of people who want to come." singapore's experience mirrors those of japan and south korea. population pyramid of vietnam in 2018 vietnam's population grew from 60 million in 1986 to 97 million in 2018, with the rate of growth falling to about one percent in the late 2010s. like bangladesh and unlike egypt, vietnam is a developing country that has successfully curbed its population growth. vietnam's median age in 2018 was 26 years and is rising. between the 1970s and the late 2010s, life expectancy climbed from 60 to 76 years. it is now the second highest in southeast asia. vietnam's fertility rate dropped from 5 children per woman in 1980 to 3.55 in 1990 and then to 1.95 in 2017. in that same year, 23% of the vietnamese population was 15 years of age or younger, down from almost 40% in 1989. according to the world health organization (who), vietnam's population is one of the fastest aging in the world. the who projected that the proportion of people above the age of 65 would rise from 4% in 2017 to almost 7% by 2030. according to the international monetary fund (imf), "vietnam is at risk of growing old before it grows rich." the share of working-age vietnamese peaked in 2011, when the country's annual gdp per capita at purchasing power parity was $5,024, compared to $32,585 for south korea, $31,718 for japan, and $9,526 for china. in april 2020, prime minister of vietnam nguyễn xuân phúc issued a decision on attaining a demographic balance in the country by raising the fertility rate of localities that are below 2.2, which his government considers the replacement rate, and reducing the number of births in places that are above that mark. to this end, local governments are to invest in family-friendly services such as babysitting and family medicine. a 2016 report from the ministry of labor, invalids, and social affairs stated that vietnam became one of the fasting aging societies on earth in 2015. government data showed that in 2019, vietnam's population was 96.2 million people, the third largest in southeast asia, and the fifteenth-largest in the world. yet many localities had fertility rates well below replacement level, such as dong thap (1.34), ba ria-vung tau (1.37), ho chi minh city (1.36), and hau giang (1.57). phúc's decision discourages women from having children after the age of 35 and instead urges people to marry before the age of 30 and have children early. but some newspaper readers pointed out that such a policy ignores cultural, economic, and social realities. reasons for vietnam's falling fertility rate include high costs of child-rearing, youth unemployment leading many to continue to live with their parents until the age of 30, career aspirations, high costs of living in the cities, concerns over national problems (such as child abuse, school violence, food safety, pollution, traffic congestion, and overcrowded hospitals), and international issues (namely overpopulation and climate change). other rapidly growing southeast asian economies, such as the philippines, saw similar demographic trends. south asia and the middle east in india, the fertility rate has fallen from 5.9 in 1960 to 2.0 in 2020. in addition, the number of women who would like to have more than one child has declined significantly. the national family health survey of 2018 found that only 24% of indian women were interested in having a second child, down from 68% a decade prior. as of 2021, india's total fertility rate stood at 2.0, falling below the replacement level of 2.1. only five states - bihar, meghalaya, uttar pradesh, jharkhand and manipur have fertility rates above the replacement level. in general, india's falling fertility is correlated with increasing women's literacy rates and level of education, rising economic prosperity, improved mobility, and later marriage. prime minister narendra modi has been urging couples to have fewer children to make sure they are better taken care of. afghanistan's median age in 2017 was 16 years, making it the only country outside of africa with a median age below 17. a 2019 study by the taub center for social policy studies showed that israel's fertility rate was 3.1 children per woman, well above all other members of the organization for economic cooperation and development (oecd). for comparison, mexico was in second place at 2.2. israel therefore had nothing short of a baby boom, comparable to what the united states experienced after world war ii. although ultra-orthodox women in israel had a phenomenal birth rate of about seven, israel's comparatively high rate is not due to highly religious women alone, but rather the national culture and attitude towards having a family. secular israeli women had a fertility rate of about 2.2, also high by the standards of the oecd. however, among arabs living in israel, family size has declined significantly since the 1960s, to a level less than that of their jewish counterparts and comparable with the developed world, where women have become more active in the work place. among israeli women in general, women's participation in the labor force has increased, as is the case with other developed countries, yet their fertility has not declined, unlike said countries. europe in 2015, a woman living in the european union had on average 1.5 children, down from 2.6 in 1960. population pyramid of italy in 2018 italy's fertility rate dropped from about four in the 1960s down to 1.2 in the 2010s. this is not because young italians do not want to procreate. quite the contrary, having a lot of children is an italian ideal. but its economy has been floundering since the great recession of 2008, with the youth unemployment rate at 35% in 2019. many italians have moved abroad – 150,000 did in 2018 – and many are young people pursuing educational and economic opportunities. the italian national institute of statistics (istat) reported that the number of babies born in 2018 in italy was the lowest since the unification of italy in 1861. moreover, the baby boomers are retiring in large numbers, and their numbers eclipse those of the young people taking care of them. only japan has an age structure more tilted towards the elderly. one possible solution to this problem is incentivizing reproduction, as france has done, by investing in longer parental leaves, daycare, and tax exemptions for parents. as of 2019, france has approximately the same population as italy but 65% more births. in 2015, italy introduced a cash handout of €800 per couple per child. this does not seem to have had