All across the world, people are having fewer children. The birth rate is declining quickly in countries ranging from the United States to Finland to Mexico and Turkey.
Fertility data used to be a fairly esoteric concern. Not anymore. Vice President JD Vance talks about it regularly, Elon Musk calls it civilization’s greatest threat. There’s even a convention for “pronatalists,” Natalcon, taking place later this month in Texas. While worry about the falling birth rate has become a right-wing shibboleth, some Democrats are also leaning into “pro-family” rhetoric.
Why birth rates are declining is hotly debated. Some point to the increase in women’s education and income, others to the cost of childcare and housing. King’s College London social scientist Alice Evans has another theory.
“What has happened everywhere, all at once, is that we see a rise of singles,” Evans told Today, Explained co-host Noel King, “and it…