Sexual and reproductive health in low fertility countries: the Bulgarian example of policies that have been initiated against low-fertility.

From a demographic point of view Bulgaria is not a very promising country. Bulgarias population is among the fastest shrinking in Europe and has been reduced by 908000 from 1990 till 2004 according to data from the National Strategy for Bulgarias Demographic Development 2006-2020. By the end of 2004 7761049 were permanently residing in Bulgaria and of these every fourth Bulgarian was over 60 years of age. The population went down by 337 000 in the period between the two latest censuses which were conducted in 1992 and 2001. The demographic trends suggest low birth rates and some of Europes highest death rates. Considering that this is happening in combination with the constant migration mainly consisting of people in the reproductive age makes the outlook for the future rather negative. In the light of these demographic trends which are not surprising considering the demographic development in the rest of Europe the questions are: "What is done?" and "What should be done?" The debate about the demographic crisis the ageing of the nation migration the newcomers to the country mainly from developing countries the disparities in demographic trends for different ethnicities started with little voices few years ago and are becoming deeper and broader. Unfortunately and not surprisingly in some political aspects they are following the already tried Balkan model as shown below. (excerpt)