[Fortune - 28 Mar 2025] The United Nations predicts the global population will peak at 10.3 billion by the mid-2080s and cap off. Once speculated to be centuries away, the peak is now within grasp due to declining fertility rates across the world.
Last year, the U.S. fertility rate hit a historic low. Between 2014 and 2020, the fertility rate consistently decreased by 2% each year, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Most notably, women between the ages of 20 and 39 arThe economy has shouldered most of the blame for declining fertility rates. Having children is an expensive endeavor—and the tough housing market, a lack of universal paid family leave, and a shortage of affordable child care are not helping. Additionally, more people are marrying later in life than generations prior and having fewer children as a result.
However, Alice Evans, a social scientist at King’s College London, believes the baby bust is credited to something else entirely because the decline is consistent across vastly different economic landscapes.
So what can we attribute it to? More people are staying single—thanks to the phone. e not having as many children as prior generations. |