by Obianuju Mbah, Christian Today
A growing “relationship recession”, alongside economic insecurity, delayed parenthood and changing attitudes towards having children, is contributing to an unprecedented fall in fertility rates around the world, according to a major new study.
The research – published in the ‘Reproductive BioMedicine Online’ journal – and led by demographer and deputy director of the Vienna Institute of Demography, Tomáš Sobotka, warns that the latest global decline in births is “more widespread, deeper and more permanent than previously anticipated”.
It found that more than one in four people worldwide – over 2 billion people – now reside in countries where the fertility rate is lower than 1.3 children per woman.
Without significant levels of immigration, fertility at that level would eventually result in “rapidly shrinking populations”.
Meanwhile, countries with fertility rates of 2.1 children per woman or lower are now home to over half the world’s population.
Examining what he calls a “global fertility freefall”, Sobotka argues that no single factor can explain the trend.