1161 | 508 | Low fertility rate in the European Union. Is it possible to increase the number of live births?

The population of the EU shows ageing and since 2012 the decreasing have been avoided only by the help of immigration from non-EU countries. In fact the fundamental problem is not the decreasing but the imbalanced age structure: as soon as the population pyramid reaches the equilibrium the number of people does not decrease anymore._x000D_
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The most severe consequence of ageing is the drastic drop of working-aged cohort (aged 15-64) in proportion. It entails further problems such as the need for alteration of the so called pay-as-you-go pension systems etc._x000D_
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In practice there are two direct factors for balancing the population pyramid: the positive migration rate and the sufficient fertility level. _x000D_
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Nevertheless several studies proved that the immigration is able to maintain the population in number but on the other hand is unable to rejuvenate the age structure (Tsimbos, 2008; Weber, 2015). Like in the case of migration crisis in 2015 or the possible effects of Ukrainian refugees fleeing from the war nowadays._x000D_
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In my research I lay emphasis on understanding the background of fertility processes and the possibilites for reaching reproductive threshold. It is very important to put the nexuses in geographic context so I applied quantitative analyses at the regional level of NUTS 0 for comparing the countries with different kind of socioeconomic characters._x000D_
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I touch upon five research fields: the quantitative and qualitative aspects of well-balanced population structure, the critique of total fertility rate, the second demographic transition (among others related to the COVID-19 pandemic), the immigration effect on fertility rate, state interventions affecting the childbearing attitude._x000D_
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Due to the sensitive topic I apply for a comprehensive approach in which directly or indirectly arise not just the discipline of demography and georgraphy but the fields of medicine and sociology of the family as well.

Péter Uhljár
Corvinus University of Budapest, Department of Geography and Planning

ID Abstract: 508

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