Cost-of-living said to be impacting Island's birth rate

It fell by 43% between 2010 and 2022

​Would you consider growing your family in today's economic climate?

New data's shown the number of births on the Isle of Man, until 2022, fell by 43 percent in just 12 years.

John Moss has been looking at the figures:

In all seriousness though what is causing people to think twice about having more children?

Sophie Kenna and her husband live in Castletown and have one son called Arthur who's nearly six.

She's been telling Amy Griffiths why their plans for a bigger family have changed in recent years:

A spokesperson from Treasury has sent us this statement:

"Treasury is aware of the different support mechanisms here and in the UK for persons taking maternity or paternity leave and has taken steps to very significantly increase the amounts of the relevant social security benefits available in the IOM in the last couple of years. 

"Furthermore, as announced in this year's Budget and in accordance with the recommendation of Tynwald's Population Re-balancing Committee, the lower rate of child benefit which currently applies to the second and subsequent children in a family is being significantly increased so it aligns with the (currently) higher rate of child benefit which applies to the first or only child in a family.

"In 2024-25 Treasury expects to spend around £620,000 more on maternity, paternity and adoption allowances than in 2023-24. 

"Including this year's inflationary uplift, Treasury expects to spend around £2.36m more on child benefit in 2024-25 than in 2023-24.”