Demographics of the world
According to the CIA - The World Factbook, the country with the highest birth rate currently is Niger at 51.26 births per 1000 people. The country with the lowest birth rate is Japan at 7.64 births per 1000 people. Hong Kong, a Special Administrative Region of China, is at 7.42 births per 1000 people. As compared to the 1950s, birth rate was at 36 births per 1000 in the 1950s, birth rate has declined by 16 births per 1000 people. In July 2011, the U.S. National Institutes of Health announced that the adolescent birth rate continues to decline.
Sterilization (medicine)
In countries with high population rates, such as China and India, compulsory sterilization policies or incentivizes to sterilization may be implemented in order to lower birth rates. While both countries are experiencing a decline in birth rate, there is worry that the rate was lowered too much and that there will not be enough people to fill the labor force. There is also the problem of son-preference: with greater sex selection technology, parents can abort a pregnancy if they know it is a female child. This leads to an uneven sex ratio, which can have negative implications down the line. However, experiencing a lower population rate is often very beneficial to countries. It can lead to lower levels of poverty and unemployment.