The central demographic story of modern times is not declining rates of childbearing but rising rates of singledom: a much more fundamental shift in the nature of modern societies.
There’s a reason birth rates are an increasingly prominent feature in discourse and policymaking today. Population ageing and decline is one of the most powerful forces in the world, shaping everything from economics to politics and the environment.
But a weakness to the debate – perhaps even the term “birth rates” itself – is that it implies the goal is the same today as it was in the past: finding ways to encourage couples to have more children. A closer look at the data suggests a whole new challenge.
