Booming Papua New Guinea eyes ‘three child’ policy

SYDNEY

Papua New Guinea is considering ways to limit families to just three children in a bid to stop its booming population from overwhelming public services, Prime Minister James Marape said.

China for decades enforced a “one child” policy to curb population growth before ending it in 2016, while nations such as Vietnam and Iran have experimented with measures to limit families to two kids.

Official figures rank Papua New Guinea among the fastest growing countries in the world, although census data is notoriously unreliable in the South Pacific nation.

Marape said limiting families to three children would “curtail uncontrolled demographic expansion.”

“This is to ensure that there is prevention of unplanned pregnancies and births, and families will be encouraged to have no more than three children,” he said on Nov. 9 while touring a hospital.

It was not immediately clear what Marape’s family planning policy would entail.

Papua New Guinea has an official population of around 10 million people.

But some analysts suggest the figure could be much higher, given difficulties counting people scattered throughout the nation’s dense forests and rugged hills.

The Papua New Guinea government statistics office has estimated the average yearly population growth rate at 2.6 percent, while the National Research Institute of Papua New Guinea says recent growth is around 3 percent.

The United Arab Emirates has the highest population growth rate in the world at 4.7 percent, according to the World Bank.