Having children is being ranked against other choices – and losing

With the fertility rate falling across the West, there is much more affecting parents’ decisions than the economy.

Birth rates are falling in the West but only a minority of young adults are definite about not wanting to have children.

Madeleine Davies

Jan 23, 2025 – 5.00am

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The Lower Red Lion, a 17th-century pub in St Albans, Hertfordshire, is an unassuming establishment. According to its own website, it has no history of “noteworthy guests” – “the height of the yard arch would not accommodate a full coach”, it explains.

In 2024, however, it gained a degree of notoriety when a new patron announced his arrival on social media. “Found my new local,” he wrote, pointing in the attached photo to the pub’s sign: “Dog friendly; child-free.” Having, perhaps unwittingly, ignited the embers of a long-running debate about the place of children in public spaces, he found himself in receipt of thousands of replies.

New Statesman