Croatia Looks to Buck Europe’s Sharp Drop in Birth Rates

Senka Ugrin hasn’t delivered a single baby in more than two years. The 62-year-old midwife works in the only maternity ward in the southern Croatian town of Sinj and remembers a time when hundreds of babies were being born within its walls. Soon the unit will close due to a lack of business. It’s a scenario being played out across an ageing Eastern Europe which is experiencing its lowest birth rates in 250 years.

Birth rates are cratering in many countries, and at all levels of income, around the world, leaving governments scrambling to figure out why so that they can try to reverse the trend to avoid economic and social crises. Croatia’s population has dropped by a fifth to 3.8 million people since it gained independence after the breakup of Yugoslavia in 1991, with many people moving abroad for higher paid jobs. Those who stayed are having fewer, or no, children at all.