"Kids Are Too Expensive!” How Thailand Became One Of The World's Fastest Aging Countries | Insight 

'I feel like my own life is tough enough' - that's it. that's all there is to say.

A lot of Thai adults are also financially responsible for their aging parents due to the lack of good pension system. If you're a single child that means providing for 3 people (including yourself) even before any kids. No thanks.

"my own life is tough enough" Exactly. I wouldn't want my future child to have to suffer the way I did, just to live. Not even live a life of luxury but to simply live and exist is hard as it is.

Pets become children. Children become exotic animals.

It’s just not Thailand it’s everywhere now. Inflation has impacted all of us.

Working women do not want additional responsibilities. Raising a child is no joke. Kids are cute, but expensive and time consuming. The mother has to dedicate big time. I admire those women who can do it.

Having babies you can't afford isn't going to help anyone except those who are looking to exploit your labor and insecurity. The rich ppl are just concerned that their cheap labor supply will diminish. Dont be easily fooled.

In Thailand, we say that having a child is a luxury these days. I'm still paying for my daughter's university tuition and living expenses. And I'm only on a meagre teacher's salary. One child is enough for me (to bring up well). No way could I afford to raise two kids in Bangkok, especially.

I love how Thai really think about their future child's future. I lived in Thailand for a year and this is something I learned from them

I dont know why society has created a world that makes raising children difficult.

As a 35 woman in Thailand, I think about this topic a lot. One thing that different about this generation is we don't want our children to take care of us when we are old. The previous generation can expect children to take care of them but this generation needs to think about retirement before children.

The core problem is the parent in all developing and developed countries do not see better future for their kid. Hence , no point reproducing

Babies are a liability in a urban society, while it is an asset in a farming society. It seems life choices are effected by financial considerations.

The answers are same, "child is expensive", "child takes your time". Do not have wrong impression with Indonesia's 2.1 birth rate. The numbers are carried by rurals in which it is uncommon for a woman to give birth to at least 3 children and sometimes 5 children. In the urban, at most, a family only has 1 child, 2 children if wealthy. It is impossible for a family to have a child with no help of family's member or one of parent gives up his/her job. 2 people earnings are just enough to live comfortably. 1 people earning is just enough. 1 people earning with a child is struggling, if there is a break such as covid-19, most won't recover financially.

As someone from Korea where the fertility rate is almost zero, I can relate to people in this video. It's sad realities that people decide not to marry or have kids due to financial difficulties. Seems very common problem in all over the Asia. I and my partner are also considering not having kids. We have a cat, and we consider our baby daughter

After working in a large city in Thailand, I chose a more quiet place to retire in and that was Isaan. It's interesting as a foreigner to observe the many teenage pregnancies in rural Thailand compared to teenagers living in Bangkok for example. It seems in rural Thailand there isn't any discussion how a girl can say "no" to her young boyfriend who wants to have sex. Unfortunately the grandmother usually gets the responsibly to take care of the child. There doesn't seem to be pressure from village society that the young father of the child needs to financially be responsible for his child though he chooses not to marry the girl he impregnated. And the infidelity rate of young Thai husbands is quite high. These young children growing up without a mother and father is another social problem in rural Thailand. Fortunately the teenager quickly realizes its best to take some type of birth control; thus, having two kids seems to the average in rural Thailand. Note: This is only my opinion and observation)

Not just only for Thailand, Hong Kong is same like Thailand. I have no children because I have no money to pay for books, food and living place when I still young ! Now I am old and can not get baby.

One of the aspects not mentioned here is the "structural" factor that also made Thailand maintain its status as middle-income, the inability to evolve into a sector with better economic growth, as it's also a root cause why lot of Thais (including myself) decided not to have children. Since the crisis of 1997 (nearly 30 years ago), Thailand's economic growth has depended on two major sectors: assembly industrial (e.g. automobile and electronics) and tourism. However, our industries are in decline not only due to China's role as a "global shophouse" that made us less and less competitive, but lots of our expertise (e.g. Hard Disk Drive, and Internal Combustion Cars) became obsolete products with even less export demand. Meanwhile, tourism is highly affected by various external factors such as the global economy or pandemic, and when something wrong occurs, a lot of Farangs, Japanese, and even Malays who would spend for their trip (by their own will or most of their time being scammed) vanish. Looking at other "engines" to help drive our growth: agriculture, which employed one-third of Thai but contributed only one-tenth of GDP and still suffers with a lower yield than competitors (especially rice, even our are better); industries, not enough domestic capital, and technology to invest into high-tech such as biotech or robotics; service, maybe a bit better than Malaysia but much less "sexy" in terms of Geopolitics compared with Singapore. Not to mention that the Thai economy further being beaten down by the military regime for 8 years prior. Without government spending (most of them were paid for salaries) and foreign investments (many being diverted to Vietnam), the Thai economy could hard to find what to stimulate growth. The ones I should blame other than the government are Thai companies. Looking at the Top 100 local companies, most of them are energy, banks, retail, and telecoms which they could not compete elsewhere. With oligopolistic (in the easy words "low competition") status under a sizeable domestic market, their growth and profits are secured without the need or pressure to create more jobs and innovation. While those large companies do not care much about competitiveness (as they could export Baht to anywhere else) or wage hikes (as they could charge us later), many SMEs would suffer from several closures and job loss if they lose only "competitiveness" in terms of cheaper labor cost. Those structural deficiencies left Thailand struck with a "glass ceiling" that we could not increase wages for at least 11 years while inflation rose at 1-2 percent every month. Bringing average income for local Thais (not you Farangs!) is about 7,350 THB for those who receive minimum wages and 15,000 THB for workers with college degrees. Thus, spending is nearly eaten out of the whole payroll. Bangkok and suburbs prices for cheap but not slum studio apartments cost about 4,000 THB per month, low nutrient but edible foods for 50 THB each meal, and two-hour bus transit from CBD to your room may cost about 100 THB daily. Even if you have eaten two meals a day, those already cost you 10,000 THB and you have to pay for electricity, phone bills, and even soap (as we Thais take a shower at least two times a day). This should explain why lots of Thais had no savings (and on the opposite, high rates of household debt), not speak about spending for hobbies, pets, kids, or parents living in outer provinces. Meanwhile, they have no alternative as most job opportunities that provide better pay are concentrated only in Bangkok and its suburbs, Eastern provinces of industrial estates, or traveler's destinations like Chiang Mai or Phuket. On the other hand, the government became not capable to provide of adequate subsidies. As a Thai "middle-class", with my own qualification at least eligible to pay income tax which bottom threshold is earned at least 18,250 THB per month before deduction (that made them pay tax for 1 THB), considering only 4.7 out of 66 million Thais (you can blame this for shadow economy). This means the low proportion of citizens being paid for education, healthcare, and social welfare used by whole countries. Low pools of government income result in adequate services as you have to trade quality with coverages. Furthermore, some aspects of government services had to be paid individually. For example public elementary schools, the average ones cost you about 1,000 - 2,000 THB per semester but you have additional payment for books, stationery, and uniforms !!! which made you pay about 4,000 - 5,000 THB per child. Meanwhile, seeking a better education that later would ensure you a job with a good income will cost a lot more due to hidden costs including housing (most of good schools concentrate in Bangkok), transport (to bring your kids from and to your suburb's houses), tutoring (many university exams require something more "intensive"), and other "social taxes" (to fit in with Bangkokian middle-class society). Even if you had a combined income of about 100,000 THB per month (equal to a couple of auditors - a breed who receive much higher than average income), it became a dilemma to use them for raising kids or saving them for retirement as government safety nets for elders are barely enough for adequate living standards and become more difficult if you suffered with NCDs after a retirement. Even though we suffered minor problems of brain drain (as we absorb many Farangs, Japanese, and Chinese in exchange) and plenty of blue-collar workers from neighboring countries ready for a fill-up in labor-intensive works, solving Thailand's aging problems in the long-run could be possible only with a better economic structure that made ordinary Thai wealthier enough to spend more on elder and kids, and government obtain more taxes to subsidize someone who raises kids and taking care elder for us who don't have though. Better reforms also help us Thai rather than struck into the middle-income trap that made us suffer with both first-world and third-world problems simultaneously, and what our government will do to help solve this for us is a single-shot injection for 10,000 baht and hope our Thai spend more, what a bullshit!

I went to Thailand alone for 3 months with my 8 month old son and every where we went Men ,women and child would run up to me and say baby!! They would take my son hold him, play with him and take pictures with him. It was like he was a celebrity. I’ve never seen anything like that ❤

Raising child is so hard. I have a daughter who is going to graduated bachelor’s in engineering. Many years ago, I quit a corporate job to be with her. I studied every education methodology in Thailand, looking for her school. I controlled myself not to pick her up every time she cried. I stopped myself not to call her every time I missed her. However, Thai people always give me smile and encouragement. I never feel down even though I have gone through financial difficulty to give my daughter the textbooks and computers. I’m Thai. I have been to many places in the world, and I love to live here. I have close friends who are from Myanmar, China, and America here. Sometimes we have beautiful morning coffee. We can openly express our thoughts on various subjects. Sometimes we help each other to cook dinner for our family. Thailand may have many problems, but Thai people are so kind and willing to help everyone.

It used to be a norm to have a bunch of kids in our grandparents era and not think much about how their future will be. The mentality then was if the kids can't make it in school then just drop out and find work. It doesn't work like this anymore. People now feel highly responsible for the kids they have and want them to have decent life and education in order to secure a better future. Standard of living in general can only go up because of the need for economy growth. People generally want salary increments every year so inevitably drive up costs of everything. Those who are at low and middle income will always suffer because they won't starve to death, but can't eat their fill.

Tawatchai's part of the video made my eyes water. Gosh, if I were to become poor and hadn't planned my finances well enough, I would do the same thing he is doing, rather than be a burden on my family. I would work until the end of my life instead of dragging my family down, and that's without having any kids. Thailand nowadays is getting worse and worse. Even the air we breathe here in Bangkok requires us to buy purifiers from China. Imagine living a life where you even have to purchase the air you breathe. Having a kid? Haha, you've got to be kidding me.

Free child care, free high quality schools, child stipends for parents who pay taxes, low cost education, affordable housing, affordable health care.....it's a global problem

I live in the USA, and for me, having children is a luxury too! I can barely afford my food, so I can't imagine having children, and I don't want them either! I have a cat, and that's all I need! ❤

From experience, there is no support for single parent. If couples split up, only one parent (or grandparents) is responsible for raising the child. Both parents need to be held legally accountable for raising the child and taking care of child's well-being.

Itu namanya crisis ekonomi, ketika ayah anda mampu menyekolahkan anda sampai universitas, tetapi anda tidak mampu menyekolahkan anak anda sampai universitas dan memilih tidak mau punya anak

Any body who wants a goodnight sleep should not have children. Life is hard enough for individuals to survive

Not from Thailand but the world is getting more fucked up, global warming, pandemics and more diseases, more crime. Water shortage, more air pollution (i live in delhi) why would i want to bring a child into this world knowing he will suffer in the future. This also is one of the main reasons for me.

I really feel for women that want children but can’t conceive 😢

Not only thailand, singapore korea japan and many countries all low birth rates for 1 simple reason Money. Things are getting expensive and the world is really getting into bad shape heatwaves in asia and floods in western countries. Is it really worth to create a innocent human in this world now?

Is Thailand still considered a developing nation? I went there and most places have good infrastructure, and very well developed. As a SEAn, I feel proud, and saddened at the same time because am from the Philippines and we are so far behind. I thought Japan is beautiful because, well, it is Japan, but then I went to Thailand and didn't realize how far ahead it is compared to Philippines. Anyway, kudos for Thailand! So proud of you as a tourist there once.

I dont want my kids to be born in the country that has the government like this.

A cost of raising a kid with good environment and education is too high. Furthermore a lots of Thai people wants to be high educated and get a high salary for make sure that they’re prepared for having a kid. They’ve seen a lot of children who raised with unprepared parents and bad environments from social in bad way that’s one of reasons why they have to make sure. Because they doesn’t want their children to suffer like they did in the past. In my opinion as a Thai the main reason is literally financial. The cost of living gains every year even in countryside the cost is higher as well.

An educated child can support himself as an adult and mayby help the family. An uneducated child will have financial problems as an adult and will probably be a burden on the parents and need support. It is logical for parents to focus their time and money on one child and not to split it on many children. Better to raise one child good than to choose to raise several in poverty.

I'll be turning 51 this year, and I've heard that Thailand is a developing country since I was born. I don't think it's developing, I think it's undeveloped. The reason I say this is because Thailand has suffered from many coups and is one of the most frequent countries where the military destroys democracy. Only the elites and high-ranking investors with connections to the upper class can take profit from the country's resources. Connections are more important than conscience. The middle to lower classes really suffer from this. The new generation knows about this, and if they have the chance, they definitely go abroad to seek a better life. However, if someone can't go, they might rethink having children because of the unfairness mentioned earlier.

I'm in thailand now and my wife gave birth 4 days ago. From start to finish in the pregnancy I had to spend around 6000$ total I think. They are making it extremely hard here to have babies. They also push for unneccesary C-sections which will limit future pregnancies. I have no doubt that birth rate here will absolutely crash in the next decades. It just keeps getting worse.

Thailand doesn't seem like a 'developing country' from most people appearing in this program, tho. It makes me think the real problem is the class divisions within Thai society.

Thailand is the closest to the world average for income (GDP per capita PPP). It is neither rich nor poor. It is quite literally the average statistically, the most average on Earth

Our main religion (Thailand) is buddhism, we don't believe in god, we don't feel kids are god's gift but they are actually a burden once we have them our life is not ours anymore but belong to them, we would have to spend utmost of our money and time to raise them for a whole life, it is like a risky investment we cannot expect that they will look afer us once we get old, people in some culture may think having children is a retirement plan for them (to fund parents when they grow up) but we only trust in money it can buy comfort when we are old.

Life is a present box. You don't know what you get until you open it. Having a kid or not doesn't prove that you will have a happy life. So many people don't want to have risk and want to rely on themselves as much as they can.

Indonesia is 2.1? Wow, maybe the reason it's still high is because of a lot of rural areas. But in the city, it's a different story, many of my friends have no children or are even not married like myself.

people are so tired of being slaves of capitalism. sure the country's total gdp is rising, but mostly for the rich. the poor remains poor.

Amazing documentary from CNA!

A falling birth rate would only be bad news to economists who want an ever-rising population in a finite world. Maybe it's good news that lots of people aren't reproducing. That will just mean we will have more elders than younger people, and the younger people will inherit more assets from the older generation. Imagine this: the youth generation will inherit assets not only from the parents and grandparents, people of the direct lineage, but also people of the side branches, because they have no descendants.

Thank you for another fascinating episode! ☮️

I was born in Bangkok in the late seventies (I’m a dude). This year I’ll be 47 & out of 7 close friends (all dudes - but 2 of those came out as being Gay in their 20s) only myself have a children…and even that I kept postponing until I was 38. My close cousins whom I grew up with only myself and my younger brother have children (each has a single child). No one talks about having children anymore (at least those who were born and raised in Bangkok). I cannot speak for people from different regions in Thailand but Bangkok has become extremely expensive for Thais and we don’t want to bring out the next generation to face to this very poor & inferior environment. Anyone who says Bangkok is amazing place to live you were not born and raised here. We all want to get out….if we only could…

ผมเป็นคนไทย🇹🇭 ตอนแรกก็คิดกังวลกลัวไปก่อนว่าจะเจออะไรแบบนี้ ปัจจุบันผมอายุ 38 เพิ่งมีลูกชายตัวน้อยอายุ 1 ปี 9 เดือน มันทำให้รู้สึกว่าทำไมเราไม่มีลูกให้เร็วกว่านี้😊 อยากมีลูกหลายๆคน มันทำให้ครอบครัวผมมีความสุขมากขึ้น รักกันมากขึ้น ปู่ย่าก็มีความสุข🥰

We are here in the provinces in the Philippines..i have 4 children the ljoy of my life ..they went to public schools learned well ,blessed with scholarships and hardworking ..more than blessings to me these children i cannot ask for more ..grateful to God ,everyday..

As a Thai, Thailand has been wishing to be just a production hub relying on the cheap labor to be profitable as well as the oligarchy economy but never has their own technology. This depend on the government vision, unfortunately, 2 coup from 2006 and 2014 made thing got worse.

Corruption still a big issue, tax money, is mostly going in to government pockets instead of speeding the process of improving the country. Ask any local, example: they use tax money to dig up the same road multiple times since covid. its been 4 years they been " fixing the a road" AND the average income has not risen , it barely improved. Majority of locals earn 10,000 - 18,000 baht per month In the city if your an office worker/ managers its 20,000 - 30,000 baht per month

almost young people these days chose not to have kids even me I am 36 years old now and I prefer not to have kids it is really expensive now a days only the rich are privilege to have one. For me If I cant afford to have kids I rather grow old alone. I can’t handle to see my future kids struggle financially that is the reality not just in Thailand but around the world.

❤ Thank you for this documentary. I wasn't aware about this situation in Thailand.

Very interesting documentary. Thank you 🙏

Alone doesn't mean lonely Lonely always feels alone Even u already have it all

Great informative video, CNA ! 👍🏽

Well done CNA! This was such an interesting feature and goes deeply to look at different aspects of the issue.

this wasa so fascinating, thanyou youtube for recommending

This scoop is very good. Well done for all the details.

Not just Thailand but all countries face declining birth rates. Improving healthcare means people live longer, access to birth control means fewer children therefore birth rates fall. The nursing assistant and his partner "had to buy a new car"? Maybe it wasn't brand new but it looked like a new model not an older second hand car. I don't know any nursing assistant in the UK that could afford a new car.

The Economist ran two articles about this last year, it was about how a lot of countries in Asia will become old before they get rich. The two articles spoke about Asia in general but the main focus was on Thailand, Sri Lanka and Vietnam - the three main developing Asian countries that will face population peak in the next 15 years, peak in workforce population and subsequent population decline due to low fertility and rapid aging.

Not only in Thailand..few countries in Asia have the same problem.👈🙂🙂 There is nothing we can do about it. 👈😏😏

Inequality is very very high in Thailand. We do not want our kids to live in this type of society. This is how people get back to their government.

I live in Thailand, though I'm from London originally. The quoted cost of $550,000 USD for a Private education in an International School is way way off. Our 6 year old goes to an International School in Chiang Mai, and the costs is less than $3,500 USD per year, so times that by 12 and you're still coming in at less than $45k USD

It has started with my generation who was born in the 1970s onwards. 30% of my girlfriends don't have children. Can you blame us? One of the most beautiful peaceful country on earth but our system failed us terribly. We could have been a country with peaceful and prosperity.

Actually some are drawn by the society peer pressure for commitment towards nice house and cars and lifestyle rathwr than willing to sacrifice for children like our parents did. Media socials show so many indulgence that many couldn't resist. So then the reason is financial burden. But bringing a new life to a world with so high pollutions, stress, economic uncertainty...all these also bring uncertainty future for children in future.

You have to admit, those babies and children are adorable!

Considering we are literally running out of food (arable land) on Earth, it's good every nation from west to east, participates in the population reduction project without war. Remember, it's better to be a great uncle or aunt to your sibling than a lousy parent

The country is also ruled by old people for the old people. There's no space for young people.

Hope we do not only think he "negative" things. There are lots of joy in having children. We love our son. Cuz my health condition, we cannot have one more. Of course there are lots of difficult things to be faced, but there are also much more enjoyable moments to be cherished together!

This covers so many angles. The struggle to pay bills, to pay for the expenses attached to having kids, what happens when you have no kids and there's nobody to care for you as you age....... the impact lower population has on business.... WOW.... You don't think about this when you hear folks not wanting to have kids. I have 5 from 6 years to 20 and it's been a struggle. As I see more of me in them it was worth it. I can also see why others would prioritize their financial freedom. Blessings to all and the choices you make 😊

Very good . Point. The enterprise / company have a part to play too.

Congratulations for being part of 1st World 👏👏✨🎉

เรามีลูก2คน มีความสุขดีค่ะ การงานและการเงินเป็นไปได้ดี อยู่ในทางที่โอเค ก่อนหน้านี้ก็กลัวว่าจะไม่ไหว แต่จริงๆแล้ว มันมีทางของมันเสมอ มันมีทางให้เราไปต่อได้ตลอด เคยมีช่วงลำบาก แต่ก็ผ่านมาได้ เพราะมีลูกเป็นกำลังใจ…..สุดท้ายแล้ว ทุกคนสามารเลือกได้ว่าจะเอายังไง เราไม่ควรมองกันและกันไม่ดี ขอให้ทุกคนพบเจอกับความสุขค่ะ :) ❤

3 guys I have met don’t want to have kids. They have good jobs too. They want to live and explore and retire with their money! I don’t blame them!

Thank you for making this videos. I thought about this before too but I never looked into statistics or studies of the number of birth in Thailand is really low.

คุณภาพสำคัญกว่าปริมาณ จนไม่พร้อมก็ไม่ควรมีลูก ยุโรปหลายประเทศมีประชากรน้อยกว่าไทยไม่เห็นเป็นปัญหาทั้งด้านแรงงานและกองทัพ

Was in Thailand in January, and i was surprised. I thought Thailand is similar with us in Indonesia where there are so many youngsters.

ไม่ใช่แค่ฐานะการเงินที่เป็นเหตุผลหลักต่อการไม่อยากมีลูกหลาน.. แต่เพราะสังคมโลกและการเมืองรวมทั้งปัญหามลภาวะหรือสิ่งแวดล้อมฯ ทำให้โลกใบนี้ไม่น่าอยู่เหมือนรุ่นก่อนๆ แม้ว่าวัตถุและเทคโนโลยีจะพัฒนาก้าวกระโดด แต่ทางด้านจิตใจและธรรมชาติกลับสวนทาง.. การเลือกทางสงบไม่ซับซ้อนไม่ต้องมีห่วงมีบ่วงภาระ นั่นคือจุดหมายของคนวัยทำงาน/วัยสร้างครอบครัว/วัยก่อนเกษียณ ที่ชอบวางแผนก่อนมีคู่มีครอบครัว คนที่มีลูกง่ายโดยไม่วางแผนก็มีเกลื่อน คนที่มีพร้อมทั้งฐานะทั้งวัยวุฒิที่อยากมีกว่าจะมีก็วัยห่างกับลูกจนอาจอยู่ไม่ทันรุ่นหลานอีก..

35yrs old single and opted not to have a children in my life. Honestly I'm earning decent income for myself but adding a children in my life will put my status quo in limbo. I had decided to never change my lifestyle in exchange for an uncertain future, additional expenses and additional responsibilities. I want to do so much that having a child will definitely derail my plans and goals; I think the cons outweigh the pros. I had already hit half of the life expentancy and the time was too short. I already promise myself that I wil never bring a child in this world to experience the same hardship I had experienced.

As an American, I have been fearful of having children because there are so many strange ideas and dangers now that can influence a child. What if your child is influenced by radicalism or is persuaded to use drugs. I’m the same age as Lawrence Wong and when I grew up there were no crazy ideologies and no drug problems here in our Seattle suburb. So the world is changing. We must fix it, though it seems insurmountable and dark forces seem to win.

Surprised to learn there is little correlation between marriage and birth rate in Thailand. Makes me wonder if Singapore/Japan/Korea's low birth rate is not caused by fewer marriages but another reason

"Functional age" this term and policies towards it is so appropriate.

I am Thai. i live in southern of Thailand. My husband and i plan to have 2 kids. We live far from hometown, I am from Pattani, deep south of Thailand near Malaysia border and my husband from Trang southern Thailand but we work and living in Phuket. We plan to take care kids by ourselves. I married when i was 31 and have 1st child girl when i was 33, 2nd pregnant when i was 35 and i was shocked that i got twin boy. Very difficult time to take care 3 kids by myself and my husband help afterwork to give me some relax. 1st child age 6 years next month and twin boy now 3 years old. Every day is busy day almost 5 years until today. 3 kids too much for me, now they are fighting and making house dirty. i don't have mom to help even for some time because my mom already dead before i married and my husband's mom is old and live far away, i don't' want to trouble anyone else. Take care kids is very tried work, old people should be relax instead. To have kid is vey tried but we very happy when i see their Smily. Very happy when hug and kiss them. Fun time when we have family activities together, travel together with our kids, eating taking and laughing together. Sad and happy time together. Kids is our happiness. When they grow up hope me and my husband we have more time to chill and relax.

Developed” countries mean higher standard and cost of living that can only be possible by woman working full time. True for all the countries with declining population. Goes to show you can’t have everything. It’s sad there is no way to reverse this trend doesn’t matter what. Thailand is also in the same trap. Single income is not enough to support family any more.

My parents had my brother and I. Both worked full time so hired 1-2 full time helpers (nanny and housekeeping responsibilities). And my mom had friends that were more well-to-do, so she took on debt to keep up appearances. Why would I do that to myself?

It is amazing to me how people are trading their standard of living ahead of building a family.

It has been a developing country for the last 50years and still developing, yet developed.

Real estate in Thailand even though we are developing country, it is much better than in many developed country in term of area and quality

As a working adult in my thirties, and now single, the idea of having a baby begins to fade away as time goes by. In my previous relationship, I remember having many conversations with my ex-girlfriend about whether we should have kids, but we never really had a clear answer for that. Though my job in Bangkok is quite stable with a decent salary, still I have to carefully plan ahead for my savings, investments (if possible), and how much I would be able to afford life after retirement. There is no pension like my parent's generations despite working in a governmental sector. Being a public servant no longer guarantees this. (That's part of the new policy I believe). Now, the idea of having kids doesn't even come to my mind, let alone being in any serious relationship. My priorities now are being as debt-free as possible (not buying a house or a condominium, or even a car), so I'm planning to rent a room close to my workplace. After retirement, I most likely go back to my hometown where I grew up.

Unlike China, Thailand is definitely trapped in middle income

I lived in thailand many years. I have no clue about birth rate stuff. But what i know is that i have known 4 young people (17-25 years) wehre have died from hart atacks. I have never met anyone in a other country dieing in this age from stuff like that. But maybe its just a cooincidence.

This is good news!

Thailand and Malaysia has the same fate. The system is still not functioning forward ⏩. Look at tourism and gas production a lot but it's economy is slowing. corruption is blatant, it's economy is run by oligarchs. Indonesia, Philippines and Vietnam are correcting it's system and move forward.

I didn't even know Thailand had such a problem.Kudos to the people to waking up and realizing that having kids is not mandatory.Better than my country where people are excess.

the decrease is a global trend. life is hard and kids are expensive. people just think twice now to have kids due to being unsure if they can actually afford them. also if they have the energy to care for them when work is busy.

This is more and more important as companies and countries look to Thailand as an alternative to China. If it takes 10 years to fully build a factory, manufacturing plant, processing plant, etc. complete with supply and logistical hubs, then countries and companies are literally counting how many 4- to 10-year-olds running around: They will be the 14- to 20-year-olds that will be working and/or learning to work when everything is built. Thailand, China, Singapore, Japan and much of Europe are just the canary in the coal mine to what EVERYONE will be experiencing over the next 30 years including the USA.

Thailand is not considered a migrant society so having migrant workforce like Singapore is still uncommon. So far, migrant workers are restricted to labour intensive occupations that Thais don't want to do. Maybe welcoming more migrants could be a solution, at least short term at least ???

Having lived in Thailand I have observed its one of the safest countries for women to live in. One of the reasons for gender equality is women outnumber men. Definitely a fast growing economy fueled by tourism.

We have moved from a single income society to a dual income society which means there isn't a mother or father at home to raise your kids. In the USA as well, healthcare costs are so high and unknown it is scary to consider even with insurance.

มันเป็นเรื่องซับซ้อนเกินไปที่จะพูดถึงเรื่องศาสนาของแต่ละคน เพราะแต่ละศาสนาก็มีความเชื่อแตกต่างกัน แต่ปัญหาของการไม่อยากมีบุตรของคนรุ่นใหม่ในประเทศไทยคือ การที่ส่วนใหญ่อยากรู้สึกอิสระ ไม่อยากมีภาระ ไม่ต้องดิ้นรนทางการเงินที่เป็นปัจจัยหลักในการเลี้ยงดูลูก และอีกส่วนหนึ่งที่พูดถึงกันมากคือปัญหาสังคมที่คุกคามเด็กๆคือ ยาเสพติด การติดเกมงอมแงม การใช้ความรุนแรงในหมู่เยาวชน สิ่งเหล่านี้ทำให้คนเกิดความเครียดความกังวลที่จะต้องหาทางปกป้องลูกของตัวเองไปตลอดจนกว่าจะโต ถ้าคนบางคนบอกว่าการไม่มีลูกคือการเห็นแก่ตัวนั้น ก็ไม่ใช่เรื่องที่ถูกไปทั้งหมด และก็ไม่ใช่เรื่องที่ผิด เพราะเหตุผลของแต่ละคนไม่เหมือนกัน คนไทยเรานั้นไม่เหมือนคนทางตะวันตกที่พอลูกอายุ 18-22 ปี เข้ามหาลัยแล้วก็ปล่อยให้ลูกเดินทางชีวิตต่อเอง คนไทยเป็นสังคมที่ผูกพัน ดูแลลูกไปเรื่อยๆ จนกว่าจะตายจากกันไป ซึ่งแน่นอน ค่าใช้จ่ายในการดูแลบุตรของเราไม่เคยกำหนดว่าสิ้นสุดเมื่อไหร่ ช้าหรือเร็วก็ขึ้นอยู่กับว่าบุตรของเราเข้มแข็งแค่ไหน เราคนไทยก็มีปัญหาแบบของเรา ส่วนคนญี่ปุ่น เกาหลี สิงคโปร์ ก็มีปัญหาแบบของเค้า สุดท้ายแล้ว ก็เชื่อว่าวันหนึ่งธรรมชาติ จะคอยปรับและแก้ไขความสมดุลย์ให้อีกทางหนึ่งด้วย