Bhutan is now offering cash rewards to families who have more children. The small mountain nation is trying to fix a dual problem: its birthrate is dropping fast, and thousands of young people are moving away to live and work in other countries.
Over the last 10 years, the number of babies born each year in Bhutan has dropped by more than 25 per cent. At the same time, the country is losing its younger generation to immigration.
Prime Minister Tshering Tobgay has warned that this population drop is an "existential crisis"—meaning it threatens the very future of the country. To help fix this, the Prime Minister launched a new government plan in June called the Third Child Plus programme. Under this plan, the government will pay families 105 dollars every month for their third child and any children born after that until the child turns three years old.
Local citizens appreciate the extra financial help, but many worry it might not be enough. Working parents point out that raising a child is still very expensive, and high prices for housing, food, and childcare might keep families from having more babies.
This issue is a massive concern for the small country, which has a population of fewer than 800,000 people. Since the year 2020, the number of families having a third child has dropped by 27 per cent.
According to United Nations (UN) data, Bhutan's fertility rate has fallen to 1.8 children per woman. This is below the "replacement level", which is the minimum number of births needed to keep a population stable without shrinking. Because of this decline, experts predict that the percentage of elderly citizens in Bhutan will nearly triple by the year 2050.
The government is deeply worried that the combination of fewer births and young people moving away will leave the country without enough workers to support the economy and care for the ageing population. As of May 2026, more than 71,000 citizens were living outside of Bhutan, and more than half of them had moved to Australia.
The UN Population Fund (UNFPA) helped design the new cash programme. However, the UN agency advises that governments should focus on providing affordable childcare and supportive work policies for parents, rather than just trying to force birth numbers up.
This population challenge is a complete reversal for Bhutan. In the 1970s, the government actually ran campaigns to encourage smaller families. Some experts note that Bhutan's population shift has happened incredibly fast. In the 1990s, the average woman in Bhutan had more than six children, but recently women have two or one child on average.
The Prime Minister recently told parliament that young people leaving the country is Bhutan's single biggest challenge. He explained that the best way to keep young people at home is to build a stronger local economy, create high-paying jobs, and improve everyday living conditions.
However, some scholars argue that a smaller population might not actually be a bad thing for Bhutan. The country is famous for measuring its success through Gross National Happiness (GNH) rather than just money, and it is one of the only carbon-negative countries in the world. They point out that when women get better access to high-quality education and career opportunities, they naturally choose to have fewer children, which can be a sign of social progress.
