OPINION: Have they done too much, much too young?

The past few years have witnessed increased attention to levels of teenage pregnancy in the UK, where stark comparisons with other European countries are routinely drawn. Yet elsewhere in Europe there is deep concern about the dramatically declining birth rate. This is producing a serious prospective demographic imbalance, with major implications for the generational contract of the future.

Birth rates within minority ethnic communities are considerably higher than among indigenous populations. Racist reactions to immigration in countries such as Denmark, the Netherlands and Austria have generated deep reflection at government level about the relationships between the demographic challenge and issues to do with community cohesion. Indeed, this led, in Austria, to a recent observation by a government minister deploring the fact that "native" young people were spending too much time partying and having fun when they should be having sex and producing children.