Pregnant Poland

Today's trip to the hypermarket, and the last few seminars I attended (at which female speakers were either pregnant or just back from maternity leave), make me realise that Poland's undergoing a mini-baby boom. To see where it's coming from and where it's likely to take Polish demographics, take a peek at the graph here. What were seeing is the rising demographic tide of Poles in their mid- to late 20s starting to have more and more children. This baby boom is somewhat different to the one that kicked off in the early 1980s. Now, mums are having their first babies in their late-20s and 30s rather than early-20s as before. Economics are also important. As the Polish economy continues to boom, so couples are feeling more optimistic about future prospects. Poland has a long way to climb. Bottoming out at 1.3 births per woman, fertility rates are joint lowest in the EU. But one can see that a turnaround has begun. Demographic pyramids with a wide base are dangerous, but so are demographic mushrooms.

UPDATE Summer 2008: Three of the 11 women in our office have become pregnant this year.