There has been a remarkable global decline in the number of children women are having, say researchers.
Their report found fertility rate falls meant nearly half of countries were now facing a “baby bust” – meaning there are insufficient children to maintain their population size.
The researchers said the findings were a “huge surprise”.
And there would be profound consequences for societies with “more grandparents than grandchildren”.
How big has the fall been?
The study, published in the Lancet, followed trends in every country from 1950 to 2017.
In 1950, women were having an average of 4.7 children in their lifetime. The fertility rate all but halved to 2.4 children per woman by last year.
But that masks huge variation between nations.
The fertility rate in Niger, west Africa, is 7.1, but in the Mediterranean island of Cyprus women are having one child, on average.
In the UK, the rate is 1.7, similar to most Western European countries.
How high does the fertility rate have to be?
The total fertility rate is the average number of children a woman gives birth to in their lifetime (it’s different to the birth rate which is the number of children born per thousand people each year).
There has been a remarkable global decline […]
I think this is very good news. Way to many of us on the planet eating and crapping the very life out of her destroying all other species including ourselves. This clearly is not going to end well for all concerned.
I would never think about bringing a child into this insane society, mainly because I am poor. I see the rich making babies much more than the poor because they are not worried about their children’s future. That is why I will always tell my grandchildren to not have children, because they cost so much money to bring up and educate in order to ensure they can survive in this neoliberal hell hole we call democratic capitalism in America; but which is actually an oligarchy and has little to offer poor people of any color or belief system. I am quite sure that God is a socialist, not a capitalist, that is why I am against overpopulation which is destroying God’s world.