World
While Asia Wants a Baby Boom, Indonesia Says Enough Is Enough
- Investors long have been lured by Indonesia’s massive market
- Country’s population is expected to hit 300 million by 2030
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Countries across Asia are trying everything from fertility tours to baby bonuses to spur population growth in an aging world. Not so in Indonesia, where officials are trying to convince people to have fewer children.
The world’s fourth most-populous country is promoting later marriages, family planning and contraception to lower its fertility rate to 2.1 children per woman by 2025. That’s the “replacement rate” that would effectively flatten population growth in the country of 270 million, damping some concerns that overcrowding could mean fewer job opportunities and strains on government services.