The world’s total fertility rate has plunged from five children per woman in 1950 to 2.25 children in 2023

The world’s total fertility rate has plunged over the past 70 years from around five children per woman in 1950 to 2.25 children in 2023 .

David Rothkopf : In 2023 , more than 100 countries had a fertility rate below the level needed to maintain population sizes over the long term, the so-called replacement rate, often pegged to about 2.1 children per women per woman.

He says fertility decline is the product of many positive developments, including better contraception, a reduction in teenage pregnancy, and higher levels of female education, among other positive developments.

With astute planning and policies, countries can survive and even thrive as their societies grow older.

Low fertility will have important consequences, chief among them changes to the age structures of populations.

When fewer children are born, the ratio of “older” (generally defined as 60 or 65 years and up) to younger people in a population increases.

Some worry that this will put an impossible burden on public welfare and health care systems.

Low fertility rates have recently become a highly politicized subject in the United States .

Some conservative U.S. politicians have invoked the prospect of depopulation and accuse opponents of being responsible for the plummeting birthrates.

There is also no indication that the country has become a nation of “childless cat ladies,” a term used by JD Vance .