Babies cost money

EU birthrates have hovered near zero. Poland itself had a post-communist low birth rate on top of thousands going to the U.K. to find high paying jobs. The government in Poland started programs to encourage population growth. It worked!





From thenews.pl:

More and more children are being born in Poland, which means that next year the government will spend around 10 million zlotys more than in 2006 on one time payments to families with new borns. In the first half of this year, 227.000 children were born. Throughout the whole of 2006 only 374.000 of them were born – a demographic record in Poland. The government introduced the payments to families, around 350 dollars, as part of its `pro-family' policies to encourage Poles to have more children.

Previous posts on the subject:

http://polishtoledo.blogspot.com/2007/03/go-forth-and-multiply-damn-it.html#links

http://polishtoledo.blogspot.com/2007/06/polish-baby-boom-strains-hospitals.html#links

http://polishtoledo.blogspot.com/2007/07/more-children-coming-soon.html#links