Taiwan health worker Ma Pei-ching thought she had a tough job 20 years ago, going door-to-door handing out condoms and teaching couples about contraception.

“We used to worry we’d run out of food and space if the population continued to grow,” said Ma, a veteran of Taiwan’s Bureau of Health Promotion.

“My job was to tell people to have no more than two children at a time when having four or five was considered normal. It was hard,” she said.

How things have changed. Taiwan’s birth rate plunged to a record low last year and Ma today is part of a three-year government campaign to encourage bigger families, hoping to ward off welfare strains on a rapidly graying population.

“The younger generation sees things with a different perspective from their parents. They want careers, they want freedom and they want independence. What they don’t want is family and the responsibility of raising children,” said Ma.

“Telling them to have more children is more difficult than telling their parents to have fewer,” she said.

While giant neighbor China is still eager to keep its population in check with a one-child policy, Taiwan’s fertility rate has plunged with the average woman having only 1.2 children, down from 2.5 in the 1980s, official statistics show.

The difference could reflect contrasting economic outlooks, with China emerging as a global powerhouse while Taiwan worries about losing its competitiveness.

Taiwan’s birth rate is only slightly above that of other more mature economies such as Hong Kong and Macau with just 0.9 children, and level with that of Italy and Spain.

A “replacement” level of 2.1 children per family is needed to maintain a stable population, analysts say.

“My parents and people around me have been telling me to get married and have children for more than 10 years, as if I’m an incomplete person without them,” said Julia Lee, a 40-year-old advertising executive.

“There are too many things I want to do and I don’t have time to be a wife or mother,” Lee said. “I am happy with who I am now.”

MODERN VALUES

Lee’s view reflects that of the younger generation of affluent, better-educated people in Taiwan who no longer consider offspring a necessity, a stark contrast to their parents who subscribe to the Confucian ideal of a big family to pass on the lineage and the belief that more children will bring prosperity.

A recent opinion poll commissioned by the government found 45 percent of people between the age of 20 and 39 are single, of whom 38 percent said they were not interested in marriage at all.

The generational shift in attitude is becoming a headache for government planners who fear there will be too few young workers to support retirees, putting a strain on social services.

If the low birth rate continues, Taiwan’s population of 23 million will start to contract by 2022, according to the cabinet’s Council for Economic Planning and Development (CEPD).

The number of people aged over 65 is expected to balloon to nearly 7 million in 2051, more than triple the current 2 million, said the CEPD, which called for more active pro-baby initiatives.

From now on, at least 85 percent of married couples in Taiwan need to have more than 2 children in order to prevent the situation from worsening, it added.

In a show of government concern, officials who give speeches at wedding ceremonies have taken to telling newly weds that being productive shows their patriotism.

In the northern city of Hsinchu - Taiwan’s Silicon Valley - the local government has handed out subsidies of up to T$100,000 ($3,200) to encourage births.

“The rate of decline has slowed since we began giving out cash subsidies, but the trend has not been reversed,” said a spokeswoman in Hsinchu.

“I know monetary incentive alone is not enough to boost birth rate, but we have to do something,” she added.

The Interior Ministry is drafting measures aimed at providing better child care and is considering allowing extended paid maternity leave to encourage child bearing.

Serena Hsu, who has a 1-year-old, said she would love to have more children but has held back for lack of support.

“Whether to have another child is a question I ask myself every day. It’s a struggle between personal feelings and reality,” said the 34-year-old flight attendant, who took six months of unpaid leave to spend time with her son.

“I am not sure if it’s possible to strike a balance between work and family.”