...it has always stood out as one of the sole major East Asian countries where the birth rate hasn't fallen below replacement level. Perhaps the country's Catholic orientation has something to do with that, but since the conventional wisdom these days appears to be that the demographic dividend is a sort of destiny, it will have that going for it, at least.
Yeah oddly enough the case for family planning seems to be being refuted now. Thailand for sure has a labor shortage that is sucking in huge numbers from Burma, Cambodia, Laos, and it faces a fairly poor capability to deal with a rapidly aging population, given that it is only a middle-income country.
But most Thai commentators on the disparity with Philippines say that the lowering of population growth from 1950s to 2000 was a major help to the standard of living here, and the ability of the government to provide some moderate level of public services to people.
