These countries tried everything from cash to patriotic calls to duty to reverse drastically declining birth rates. It didn’t work.

These countries tried everything from cash to patriotic calls to duty to reverse drastically declining birth rates. It didn’t work.

…

If history is any guide, none of this will work: No matter what governments do to convince them to procreate, people around the world are having fewer and fewer kids.

In the US, the birth rate has been falling since the Great Recession, dropping almost 23 percent between 2007 and 2022. Today, the average American woman has about 1.6 children, down from three in 1950, and significantly below the “replacement rate” of 2.1 children needed to sustain a stable population. In Italy, 12 people now die for every seven babies born. In South Korea, the birth rate is down to 0.81 children per woman. In China, after decades of a strictly enforced one-child policy, the population is shrinking for the first time since the 1960s. In Taiwan, the birth rate stands at 0.87.

  • @Aztechnology
    16•1 year ago

    I agree with most the points others in this thread make about the economy having gotten worse such that it discourages more kids… I have a decent job and if I had a second child I think I would never have a chance at retirement.

    I am also curious about rising infertility… My wife and I had go through ivf to even have one child… This after 7 years of trying…

    Several of our peers and friends have struggled with this as well… It could just be a coincidence but we only know around 20 other couples outside of work and at least 6 of them have not been able to produce children naturally.

      • @Aztechnology
        1•1 year ago

        Yeah I started suspecting something like find could be impacting younger generations fertility rates as well but most the people I have known had issues on the woman’s end… Like endomitriosis causing blockages etc. I haven’t spent a lot of time researching it myself but I wouldn’t be surprised that not only are we economically disadvantaged but the rampant pollution is also driving lower birth rates for those who even try