Thailand bids to avert 'population crisis' as birth rate crashes

FILE PHOTO: Newborn babies wearing dog costumes to celebrate the New Year of the Dog are pictured at the nursery room of Paolo Chokchai 4 Hospital in Bangkok, Thailand, December 28, 2017. REUTERS/Athit Perawongmetha

BANGKOK (Reuters) - Thailand is scrambling to encourage its people to have more babies to arrest a slumping birth rate, offering parents childcare and fertility centres, while also tapping social media influencers to showcase the joys of family life.

The campaign comes as the number of births has dropped by nearly a third since 2013, when they started declining. Last year saw 544,000 births, the lowest in at least six decades and below the 563,000 deaths, which were also swelled by coronavirus-related fatalities.