Changing the perspective on low birth rates: why simplistic solutions won’t work

The news that birth rates hit record low levels in many countries in Europe, Asia, and the Americas in the past decade was met with some alarm globally. More than half of the world’s population lives in countries with a total fertility rate below two children per woman. The rate is below 1.5 in 46 countries (fig 1), and ranges from 1.3 to 1.8 in many middle income countries such as Brazil, Iran, China, Turkey, and India.1 Countries that, until recently, had fertility rates around 1.8-2.0 such as France, US, UK, and those in the Nordic region also now have declining birth rates. In South Korea the rate fell to 0.81 children per woman in 2021, an unprecedented low for any country in peacetime. Adversities and anxieties linked to the covid-19 pandemic, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and climate change may further contribute to fertility declines.2bmj;379/nov15_2/e072670/F1F1f1Fig 1Countries with a total fertility…
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