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☆ A millennial living with his parents decided it was time to leave the nest, so he bought and fixed up a crumbling $192,000 house in Malaysia
▼ + stars: | 2024-05-01 | by ( Amanda Goh | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

Read previewWhen the pandemic hit Malaysia in 2020, Kenneth Tan realized he needed his own space. Kenneth Tan Kenneth TanAlthough high property prices in major cities have made it difficult for many young Malaysians to buy their own homes, it's unclear what percentage of millennials still live with their parents in Malaysia. Kenneth Tan"I wanted a swimming pool in my place, so I needed a house that had some land. I'm just happier because I picked the one that I wanted," Tan said. "I actually added quite a lot of arches to it because the original house had them.

Persons: —, Kenneth Tan, stepmom, Tan, Kenneth Tan Kenneth Tan, Kenneth Tan Tan, Kenneth Tan Tan's, Kenneth Tan Part Organizations: Service, Business, Research, Malaysian, Petronas, Towers Locations: Malaysia, Airbnb, Kuala Lumpur, It's, Happy, KL

☆ Only one developed country has a more expensive childcare system than the US
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-27 | by ( Jacob Zinkula | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

The United States has one of the most expensive childcare systems in the world. The average childcare cost among all 30 countries was less than 15% of a couple's wages. The US spends roughly 0.4% of its GDP on early education and childcare, compared to 0.8% for the average OECD country. In addition to boosting the number of working women, reducing childcare costs could motivate some US couples to have children. A recent study from the Beijing-based Yuwa Population Research found that high childcare costs were among the main reasons for China's low birth rate.

Persons: —, Cindy Lehnhoff Organizations: Service, United, Bank of America, OECD, Business, of America, York Times, National Child Care Association, Research Locations: United States, New Zealand, Germany, Austria, Iceland, Beijing

☆ China is one of world’s most expensive places to raise children, report finds
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-22 | by ( Jessie Yeung | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +5 min

Last year, China was surpassed by India as the world’s most populous country. And while some women stop working entirely while raising their children, it makes returning to the workforce incredibly difficult. Women who have children may see a 12% to 17% drop in their wages, the report said, citing research from multiple papers. “Because the current social environment in China is not conducive to women’s childbirth, the time cost and opportunity cost for women to have children are too high,” the report said. The report warned that the falling birthrate could deeply impact economic growth, people’s overall happiness and China’s global standing.

Persons: “ Organizations: Hong Kong CNN, Research Institute, Communist, Beijing Locations: Hong Kong, China, South Korea, Australia, France, United States, Japan, Communist China, India

☆ Raising a child in China is 50% less affordable than in the US, Beijing think-tank says
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-22 | by ( Matthew Loh | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

AdvertisementThe think-tank said it calculated child-raising costs in China using 2023 data from the National Bureau of Statistics. AdvertisementIn total, raising a child until they are 18 costs Chinese families an average of 538,312 yuan, or about $73,000, Yuwa said. Middle-income families in the US are projected to spend $233,610 raising a child until they are 18, per the USDA. AdvertisementNotably, the average cost of raising a child in China fell slightly compared to Yuwa's 2022 report on the same topic. The think-tank said data from 2019 showed that the average cost was $76,000, or about seven times the country's GDP per capita at the time.

Persons: —, Liang Jianzhang, Huang Wenzheng, Yafu, Yuwa's, Yuwa Organizations: Service, Business, National Bureau of Statistics, Department of, Ministry of Health and Welfare Locations: China, Japan, Beijing, South Korea, Shanghai

☆ What Happens When Global Human Population Peaks? - The New York Times
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-18 | by ( Dean Spears | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +13 min

Over the past 100 years, the global population quadrupled, from two billion to eight billion. Some will inexcusably claim that restricting reproductive choice is a way to curb long-run population decline. If an inclusive, compassionate response to population decline emerges someday, it need not be in conflict with those values. It’s in no one’s hands to change global population trajectories alone. Six decades from now is when the U.N. projects the size of the world population will peak.

Persons: demographers, Wittgenstein, Spears, Grandma, humanity’s, They’ve, birthrates, everyone’s, It’s, it’s Organizations: Human, The Institute for Health Metrics, University of Washington, University of Texas, Population Research, New York Times, White, won’t Locations: Vienna, Austin, United States, Europe, East Asia, Latin America, Guinea, Africa, China, Brazil, India, birthrates, Chile, Thailand, Canada, Germany, Japan, Saharan Africa, Israel

☆ ‘Zombie Trout’ Unsettle Montana, Long a Fly-Fishing Mecca
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-12 | by ( Jim Robbins | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

“And we work very hard to give water back when times are tough. One study on a Colorado river found that salmonflies accounted for slightly more than half of the trout diet. They have receded or disappeared altogether on 500 miles of river in Montana. Another climate-related threat to Montana’s fly fishing is the appearance in some rivers of invasive small mouth bass, a warm water species that prey on trout and could decimate fisheries. State officials have proposed emergency regulations on the Bitterroot River, for example, that require anglers to kill and report any small mouth bass they catch.

Persons: ”, JM Peck, Jackson Birrell, “ Locations: Melrose, Colorado, Logan, Utah, Provo, Montana

☆ Elon Musk, who's fathered 10 children, reportedly donated $10 million to fund a fertility and population research project
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-15 | by ( Pete Syme | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

Per a new Bloomberg report, the billionaire donated $10 million to a project researching fertility. The money was given by The Musk Foundation to the University of Texas at Austin in 2021. A Bloomberg report revealed Monday that he's backed that up with a $10 million donation to a fertility and population research project. The PWI is a joint project of the University's Population Research Center and its economics department. Musk and a UT Austin spokesperson did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment, sent outside US working hours.

Persons: Elon Musk, Will MacAskill —, Sam Bankman, Musk, Grimes Organizations: Bloomberg, The Musk Foundation, University of Texas, Morning, Population Research Center, UT Austin Locations: Austin

☆ Victims of Cyberattack on File-Transfer Tool Pile Up
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-19 | by ( Catherine Stupp | ) www.wsj.com time to read: +6 min

The list of companies hit by a cyberattack on a widely used software tool continues to expand and several victims have filed lawsuits alleging mishandling of data. The continued disclosure of new victims affected by hackers exploiting a vulnerability in MoveIt, a common file-transfer tool from Progress Software, underscores how cyberattacks can ripple through supply chains. Some companies have been drawn into data breaches without having used MoveIt because their business partners use it. The Cl0p ransomware group has taken responsibility for the cyberattacks and posted data from some victims on its underground website. A 2021 cyberattack on a tool similar to MoveIt—Accellion’s File Transfer Appliance—had similar ripple effects.

Persons: ”, Brett Callow, cyberattacks, Callow, Genworth, PBI, “, Shell, Rob Carr, Suzie Squier, Johns, Johns Hopkins, Emsisoft’s Callow, Catherine Stupp Organizations: Progress Software, . Progress, Progress, Shell, BBC, Energy Department, Genworth Financial, Social, PBI Research Services, U.S . Department of Health, Human Services, Colorado State University, BG Group, Johns Hopkins University, Getty Locations: British, MoveIt, Kaseya, Johns Hopkins

☆ Close to half of Ukrainian refugees in Germany hope to stay
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-12 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

BERLIN, July 12 (Reuters) - Of the more than 1 million Ukrainian refugees who came to Germany to escape the war, 44% would like to stay in the country, according to a survey published on Wednesday. This was higher than the 39% of Ukrainian refugees who said they were planning to stay in a previous survey published in late summer 2022. The reason given for this was high participation in integration and language courses, intended to boost employability. Half of the Ukrainian women who came to Germany as refugees after Russia's invasion of the country in early 2022 have at least one child. The survey, which includes the responses of 7,000 Ukrainian refugees living in Germany, is a joint effort of the DIW Berlin institute, the IAB, the ministry for migration and refugees as well as the federal institute for population research.

Persons: Andreas Ette, Maria Martinez, Andreas Rinke, Rachel More, Mark Porter Organizations: Thomson Locations: BERLIN, Germany, Berlin

So how did India’s population get so big, and how long will it last? The rise in population despite a drop in the fertility rate can be explained by “demographic momentum.”“When the fertility rate drops, the population continues to grow for several decades. So, even with a replacement or sub-replacement fertility rate, India’s population will continue to grow slowly because of the considerable number of women entering their reproductive years. India’s population growth is slowing downIndia may have overtaken China in total population, but UN data also shows that its growth rate has slowed. Uttar Pradesh, for instance, is home to 17% of India’s population but has only 9% of its industrial jobs.

☆ It's 'now or never' to stop Japan's shrinking population, PM says
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-23 | by ( Sakura Murakami | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

That most likely precipitated a further population decline in a country where the median age is 49, the highest in the world behind only the tiny city-state of Monaco. Japan is the third-most-expensive country globally to raise a child, according to YuWa Population Research, behind only China and South Korea, countries also seeing shrinking populations in worrying signs for the global economy. Other countries are also coming to grips with ageing and shrinking populations. Last week, China reported that its population dropped in 2022 for the first time in 60 years. Reporting by Sakura Murakami; Editing by John Geddie and Gerry DoyleOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ A booming market for gear to help seniors grow older at home is creating an opportunity for investors
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-21 | by ( Michelle Fox | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +13 min

Alphabet, Amazon and Best Buy are among the fund's plays on the aging in place theme. Best Buy breaks into the space It's Best Buy that has really been doubling down on its efforts to break into the space. Best Buy sees the role of technology within health care becoming much more important. Medicare Advantage's health care at home coverage includes primary care, transitional care when someone is released from a hospital and often hospice care, she said. That should lead to higher earnings power, said Baker, who has a buy rating and $237 price target on Lowe's stock.

☆ Make it easier to raise children, say many Chinese after population falls
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-18 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

"Our parents think if they have more children, they can get more care when they grow old. They think raising one child is already very tiring." China is one of the most expensive places to raise a child, beaten only by South Korea, according to the Beijing-based YuWa Population Research. In Australia it was 2.08 times, 2.24 times in France, 2.91 times in Sweden, 3.64 times in Germany, and 4.11 times in the US. By comparison, north Asian countries were the costliest, with Japan 4.26 times, China 6.9 times and South Korea 7.79 times.

China’s 9.56 million births are a decrease of almost 10% from 2021, when about 10.6 million babies were born. The figures announced Tuesday are the start of what is expected to be a long decline in China’s population, which the U.N. says could reach 800 million by the end of the century. Although many countries around the world are experiencing population decline, this is the first time China’s population has contracted since 1961, after a three-year famine spurred by then-leader Mao Zedong’s industrialization drive, which is estimated to have killed tens of millions of people. While the one-child policy was effective in curbing population growth, critics say it resulted in rights abuses and a disproportionate number of men compared with women, especially in the countryside. If Chinese officials really want to encourage children, they should “give money to those who have more babies,” she said.

☆ China set for historic demographic turn, accelerated by COVID traumas
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-13 | by ( Farah Master | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +5 min

[1/3] Ang Ran and her 2-year-old son Tang Ziang look out from their home in Beijing, China November 8, 2022. A glimpse of the scars caused by the pandemic to China's already bleak demographic outlook may come to light when it reports its official 2022 population data on Jan. 17. "In less than 80 years China’s population size could be reduced by 45%. The United Nations predicts China’s population will start to decline this year when India overtakes it as the world's most populous country. U.N. experts see China's population shrinking by 109 million by 2050, more than triple the decline of their previous forecast in 2019.

The U.S. teen birth rate hit a record low in 2019, the NCHS report shows, with fewer than 1.7 births per 100 teen girls ages 15 to 19. The overall fertility rate in the U.S. declined from 2015 to 2020, additional NCHS data shows, reaching a low of fewer than 6 births per 100 women ages 15 to 44. Guzzo said birth rates never fully recovered after the Great Recession, likely due to factors such as student loan debt, high housing prices and a shortage of full-time jobs. Fertility rates vary by region, though: States in the central U.S. have higher rates than in other parts of the country. "It could be that the overturning of Roe v. Wade will act against the continued decline in birth rate," he said.

Passengers help a baby wear a mask at the Shanghai railway station in China, as the country is hit by an outbreak of the novel coronavirus, February 9, 2020. REUTERS/Aly SongBEIJING, Oct 16 (Reuters) - China will enact policies to boost its birth rate, President Xi Jinping said on Sunday, as policymakers worry that an imminent decline in China's population could hurt the world's second-biggest economy. "We will establish a policy system to boost birth rates and pursue a proactive national strategy in response to population ageing," Xi told some 2,300 delegates in a speech opening the once-in-five-year Communist Party Congress in Beijing. Its fertility rate of 1.16 in 2021 was below the 2.1 OECD standard for a stable population and among the lowest in the world. Still, the desire among Chinese women to have children is the lowest in the world, a survey published in February by think-tank YuWa Population Research showed.

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