Why do modern young people not want children?

In fact, it is not that young people are unwilling to have children, the real reason is very practical! Ren Zeping, chief economist of Evergrande Group, said: Costs such as housing, education and medical care are the main reasons why young people are reluctant to have children.

01 Since the housing reform and opening up, China's economy has experienced 40 years of rapid development, and people's living standards have continued to improve. From the basic basic necessities of food, clothing, housing and transportation, it gradually changes to the material pursuit of food, clothing, and housing. A direct consequence of material pursuits is that the amount of money a person possesses is linked to personal success. To marry, you have to marry someone rich. The prerequisite for many young people to get married and have children is to have an apartment. Assets, to some extent, have become the product of the dual spiritual and material needs of the Chinese people. In the past ten years, the direct manifestation of assets has been deliberately linked to real estate by some people, and real estate has become the primary factor in a person's success. Today, housing prices in our country far exceed the salary levels of most young people. Needless to say, housing prices in first- and second-tier cities, and even third- and fourth-tier cities, require ordinary people to struggle for decades, which greatly increases the pressure on young people’s lives. It’s hard to come up with a down payment, let alone carry a mortgage for decades. In the face of high housing prices, experts suggest that the policy of "reducing loan interest rates" can be provided to couples from low- and middle-income families who plan to have children, so as to reduce family fertility costs and fundamentally solve the problem of people not wanting to have children.

02 Education In the 1960s and 1970s, one more person just meant one more mouth to eat, and the pressure was not that great. Today, due to the high cost of living such as education and medical care, raising a child is not as simple as "taking care of enough". For example, in the future, they will have to buy a house in a school district, receive education and training classes for their children, and the anxiety that "cannot lose at the starting line" pervades the whole society, which puts parents under a lot of pressure. In a 2020 survey, what Chinese people spend the most on is "education and training", far exceeding housing. It can be said that what matters behind the transition of many children from kindergarten to college is the family’s financial foundation. There is a saying that "it costs 4 million to have a child", and many parents say it is far more than 4 million. It’s physically and mentally exhausting to have one child, let alone two or three. In addition, raising children can be very stressful and exhausting. Without the help of the elderly, only the couple can take care of the children. One child is fine, but raising two is physically and mentally exhausting. Therefore, some people suggest that kindergarten should be included in compulsory education. According to data released by the Ministry of Education, the number of public kindergartens in my country has dropped from 95% in 1997 to 44% in 2019. The decline in public kindergartens has led to the forced choice of private kindergartens with more expensive tuition fees. Therefore, some experts suggest: either increase the number of public kindergartens, or uniformly limit the tuition fees of private kindergartens.

03 Healthcare Taking Beijing as an example, if a child is born in a public hospital and there are few additional self-paid items, the total cost of maintenance will be about 26,000 yuan. Coupled with the medical expenses for children from childhood to adulthood, it can be said that medical treatment alone has dissuaded most families. Therefore, after the second child was liberalized, many places adjusted the medical expenses for childbirth, but many people still said they "cannot afford to have a child."

These three "costs" also represent the main reasons why many families are unwilling to have children. In this era of open information, people have more choices, and the concept of having children has also changed. Late marriage, late childbearing, DINK tribe, etc. have appeared. Nowadays, many women pay more attention to their career development, and their desire to have children has naturally decreased. Therefore, some experts suggest that preferential policies such as fertility incentives and tuition and medical fee exemptions can be provided to families with two children to reduce the pressure on young people to have children, which may be able to change the declining fertility rate.