How are countries fighting declining birth rates?

As birth rates fall across the globe, governments are experimenting with policy, cash, and culture shifts to encourage more births. But the results are far from guaranteed. While the goals are often the same, the tactics are wildly different. Here are eight approaches countries are testing:

• France: Family allowance fund

• South Korea: Pro-natal spending meets cultural resistance

• Singapore: The lure of cash incentives

• Japan: Overwork laws and workplace reform

• Italy: Baby bonuses, leave policies, and subsidies

• Hungary: Tax exemptions and baby loans

• Australia: Public IVF and fertility support

• Estonia: Full income replacement during leave

We break them down below.

France: Family allowance fund

France spends about 3.5% of its GDP on family support policies, making it one of the top spenders globally. Families with at least two children under 20 can access special benefits through the Family Allowance Fund, the country’s platform for social assistance that offers a wide range of services for all French residents. The family-oriented benefits include monthly allowances, a birth premium, and services to help with childcare and re-entering the workforce after parental leave.

French citizens and naturalized foreigners alike are eligible, and dependents can include foster children or orphans. While this model kept France's fertility rate higher than other EU nations for nearly 15 years, births have been declining again since 2015.

South Korea: Pre-natal spending meets cultural resistance

Despite pouring around €248 billion into pro-birth incentives over two decades, South Korea now has the world’s lowest birth rate. Families are eligible for cash bonuses up to €65,000, housing subsidies, and IVF funding.

But the challenge is cultural, not just economic. Deep-rooted norms around gender roles, career expectations, and housing costs deter people from starting families. The government is now shifting focus: offering financial support for egg freezing, promoting work-life balance, and reducing negative messaging around parenthood.

Even airports will participate: from 2025, families with three or more kids can use fast-track security lanes.

Singapore: The lure of cash incentives

Singapore once ran a "Stop at Two" campaign in the 1970s to curb population growth. Now it’s going in the opposite direction, offering incentives amounting to €17,300 for the first child, €19,900 for the second, and €27,700 for the third and fourth children.

The shift came after the country’s birth rate fell below replacement levels in the 1980s. But despite cash incentives, births dropped again in 2024, and the TFR now sits at 0.97. The government is also investing in support infrastructure, but financial aid alone hasn’t offset lifestyle and housing pressures.

Japan: Overwork laws and workplace reform

After a national reckoning over deaths from overwork (karoshi), Japan introduced a cap on overtime hours at 360 per year in 2020. More recently, the country expanded parental leave so parents can take time off until their child finishes third grade (rather than up through elementary school previously).

Other benefits include exemptions from overtime for parents with young children and improved childcare leave pay. Tokyo is piloting a four-day workweek across the public sector for more than 160,000 workers, aiming to encourage family planning by giving people more time.

Italy: Baby bonuses, leave policies and subsidies

Italy introduced a new €1,000 newborn bonus in 2025 for each child born or adopted, adding to its Universal Single Allowance, a monthly payment that continues until the child turns 21. Mothers can receive up to five months of maternity leave at 80%-100% pay, while fathers receive 10 days.

Parents can also access nursery school and home care subsidies, as well as egg-freezing support for women aged 27-37. Even so, Italy continues to face low birth rates, with economic uncertainty and housing costs as major barriers.

Hungary: Tax exemptions and baby loans

Hungary spends about 3.5% of its GDP on family support policies, the highest spender of OECD countries alongside France. Since 2020, mothers with four or more children have been exempt from income tax.

In 2025, the exemption expanded to mothers with three children, with plans to cover women under 40 with two kids in 2026. Additional perks include interest-free loans for newlyweds, grants for family-sized vehicles, and mortgage subsidies, all to help with the increasing cost of living involved in having children. Birth rates initially rose from 1.23 in 2011 to 1.61 in 2021 and has since stabilized at 1.51.

Australia: Public IVF and fertility support

The state of Victoria in Australia launched a publicly funded IVF program in 2022, targeting groups who face barriers in private systems. Over 7,000 people have received treatment, and the 250th baby was celebrated in 2025.

The program focuses on social equity, helping LGBTQ+ families, rural residents, and those undergoing medical treatments that affect fertility. Marginalized groups often face challenges or are outright excluded from accessing fertility services, as private facilities focus on patients that can pay out of their own pocket. It is the first of its kind in Australia and is being closely watched for expansion to spur birth rates nationwide.

Estonia: Full income replacement during leave

Estonia faced a total fertility rate of 1.37 in 2003 and decided to take drastic action. With one of the world’s most generous approaches to parental leave, new Estonian families would have 100% of their income replaced starting in 2004, with an extension for any subsequent children within 2.5 years. In 2010, six years after the introduction of the incentives, the birth rate in Estonia stood at 1.72 children per woman.

One critical success factor of the program was that it reduced the actual cost of childbearing for working mothers while giving them financial security. The policy significantly increased the rate at which Estonian mothers were having second and third births, with effects persisting more than ten years after the introduction. The Estonian government is now evaluating 16 new proposals on how to bump up the birth rates in the coming years.

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Some say the birth rate crisis is as urgent as the climate crisis and, similarly, the solutions are proving mildly successful at best. There is still a lack of clarity as to what is driving the decline, as the reasons that people give for not having children generally match up with the types of programmes noted above.

However, in looking at the data, it is clear that financial incentives and support initiatives only influence birth rates in the short term. It seems broader social, economic, and cultural factors continue to play a significant role in family planning.