PM Oli Concerned Over Declining Birth Rates, Urges Timely Marriage and Responsible Parenthood

Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli has urged people to marry at the appropriate legal age and take childbearing seriously, expressing concern over Nepal’s declining population growth rate.

Speaking at an event organized by the Ministry of Health and Population on the occasion of World Population Day 2025, PM Oli noted that songs and cultural trends promoting having three children before 30 and “enjoying life after 40” should not influence people’s life decisions. He reminded that the legal age for marriage in Nepal is 20 and stressed the importance of responsible timing when it comes to starting a family.

Nepal’s current annual population growth rate is 0.92%, the lowest in the past 80 years, according to the 2021 census data released in 2024. Oli warned that declining birth rates, seen in both developing and developed countries, could threaten human survival in the long run.

He emphasized that population growth must go hand-in-hand with development and prosperity. “If there were no population, there would be no country,” he said, adding that childbearing should be seen as a duty to the Earth.

Oli also criticized global hypocrisy, promoting population awareness while continuing to create weapons of mass destruction. “You can’t talk about saving the human race while building machines to destroy it,” he said, calling for peace and policies that value life and humanity.