By APD writer Alice

HELSINKI, Oct. 1 (APD) - Finland will face population decline by 2031 if the nation’s birth rate remains at current level, Finland statistics agency said.

In its projection published on Monday, the agency said with the current level of birth rate there would be no region in Finland where births exceed deaths in 15 years.

The agency said the population will start decreasing in 2031, will be 100,000 lower than today by 2050.

The agency’s projections are based on the assumption that the birth rate will remain steady at 43,000-45,000 births a year during the period of 2020-2040.

In 2010, however, the Finnish birth rate was around 60,000 and it is not clear whether the rate of decline will stop.

Finland’s small city of Luhanka has started offering euro 10,000 to the parents of any child born there.

The city has 106 elderly people for every working-age adult. Nationally, in 2019 the fertility rate will be 1.32 to 1.34, expecting an influx of 15,000 migrants.

The agency’s release has set the number of Finland’s under-15 population by 2040 at 688,000, which is 178,000 fewer than 2015 estimation.

The number of productive age population aged between 15 to 64 was at its peak in Finland in 2009 at 3.55 million.

The productive age from 2010 to 2018 period has declined by 122,000 individuals. In the next 20 years, the nation’s productive age population is projected to further decline by 111,000.

(ASIA PACIFIC DAILY)