India’s population explosion has been fuelled by family planning posters such as ‘Hum Do, Humare Do’. Yet in Vatican City, nobody has given birth to any child in the past 96 years and there is not a single hospital.
Vatican City, the world’s smallest state, is home to the Roman Catholic Church leader. Although this nation has historical importance, it has never constructed a hospital since its establishment in 1929. The request for one has been turned down time and time again, which means seriously ill patients or pregnant women have to go to the neighboring city of Rome for medical care.
The choice to forego the building of a hospital is presumably because Vatican City is small in size (only 118 acres) and lies close to superb medical centers within Rome. There have been no births in the country, as an additional reason for the nonexistence of a maternity ward, thereby. Vatican City’s inhabitants are primarily aged clergy, comprising only about 800-900 individuals, leading to its particular status.
Surprisingly, even though Vatican City is so tiny, it has a fairly high crime rate, mostly because of the huge influx of foreign visitors. Crimes such as shoplifting, purse snatching, and pickpocketing are prevalent in the city.
Vatican City also has the globe’s smallest railway station, Citta Vaticano. Constructed by Pope Pius XI during his reign, it has two tracks that are only employed for freight transportation, with no passenger trains in the nation.
By contrast, the British overseas territory of Pitcairn Islands with fewer than 50 residents also does not have any registered births for a few years. Further, even though Antarctica is not a nation, it is another area where births are uncommon since the continent is largely devoted to scientific studies.