I’m from Surin province and the birth rate of my province at year 2564 is only 6 per 1,000 population, or just 8,196 children birth from total 1.4 million population. More interesting than that in Bangkok the birth rate is even double of that of my province despite the more developed and more urbanize nature of Bangkok, in 2564 Bangkok has a birth rate of 11.1per 1,000 population, 61,604 children from 5,527,994 population. Other poorer province in Thailand also showing the same phenomenon, the only exception are Deep South provinces which having more than twice birth rate compare to the whole country but I’m really sure you know why.
Look at Cambodia for an example the trend is like other Asian countries where birth rate in it’s capital city Phnom Penh is lower than that of the poorer or less urbanized province in the north. Other of our neighbor like Malaysia is also the same, the birth rate in Kuala Lumpur is really low but for the poorer state like Terengganu, the birth rate is extremely higher compare to the capital, Terengganu even has less population than my Surin province but the birth rate is 3-4 times higher with more than 35,000 children born every years.
So why is our Thailand are at the polar opposite trend compare to other Asian countries? Because the highly-centralized nature of the Thai governance system luring young people away from rural area? Or because the extremely successful family planning campaign in the pass? please enlighten me!
