Hong Kong needs sustainable development on the family front, too
Paul Yip says couples, businesses and officials should team up to raise the city's dismal fertility rate
This month, the Family Planning Association of Hong Kong launched a new TV announcement promoting family planning for young couples. The advert raised some eyebrows and initiated discussion about Hongkongers' preferred family size. Many feel the association seems to be promoting a larger family (even form a basketball team!) without realising the difficulties of raising children in Hong Kong.
In view of a rapidly ageing population and a very low fertility rate in Hong Kong - about 1.00 per woman excluding the births of non-Hong Kong residents, well below the replacement level of 2.1 per woman - we do need more young people to maintain a healthier population structure and achieve a sustainable development.
Hong Kong households have been downsizing, from 4.5 in 1971 to only 2.9 in 2015, and it is still decreasing. Interestingly, more couples are keeping pets while fewer are having babies.
Our latest territory-wide survey suggested that there is a discrepancy between the ideal and actual number of births among married women, with about 40 per cent reporting that their actual number of births is lower than the ideal number. These women were aged 15 to 39, have postsecondary school educations and are employed.
Our study also shows that the one-child family is the mode among married couples, though the ideal is having two children. Furthermore, 20 per cent of young married women preferred to remain childless. Those who preferred no children or one child said the main reasons included the responsibility and the heavy financial burden of raising children.
We proposed 19 pro-natalist policies and asked respondents which of them they preferred. Among women who indicated they desired children, but are either childless or have fewer children than they wanted, the top four were: education subsidies (78 per cent), medical subsidies (76 per cent), free kindergarten education (73 per cent), and buy/change/rent house subsidies (72 per cent).
Among women who weren't sure they wanted children, they said these six policies might influence their decision: education subsidies (81 per cent); medical subsidies (79 per cent); buy/change/rent household subsidies (76 per cent); free kindergarten education (74 per cent); powdered milk subsidies (73 per cent); and paid parent-child leave (70 per cent).