The Ministry of Public Health has begun a program to increase the birth rate in Thailand, by encouraging Thai couples to have children, with possible financial incentives.

Public Health Minister Cholnan Srikaew has warned that, if Thailand’s birth rate is not increased, the Thai population in the next 60 years will be reduced to only 33 million, from circa 66 million reported in the Interior Ministry’s census at the end of last year.

Noting that Thailand was a country with a lower birth rate than its death rate in 2022, he said that, if this situation is not rectified, Thailand will experience tremendous problems in the future, ranging from a shortage of working people and a loss of revenue opportunities to only 14 million working-age people out of a population of 33 million in the next 60 years.

Dr. Cholnan and senior health officials met this morning at Hua Lamphong railway station, to discuss the birth rate problem and ways to increase the birth rate, which will be added to the national agenda under the slogan “Give Birth Great World” [sic].

The participants also travelled by train to Ayutthaya province, to meet with the public health volunteers who will be mobilised to convey the ministry’s message, encouraging Thai couples in the provinces to have children.

Dr. Cholnan said that public health volunteers are an important tool in approaching people, especially couples, to help them understand the importance and positive aspects of having children, while admitting that it is not easy to convince couples these days due to economic challenges.

He disclosed that the government will take steps to take care of couples who want to have children, pre-marriage and post-marriage, and child delivery, to ensure that new-born babies are healthy.