Latest news with #fertilitycrisis
Russia Today
08-07-2025
- Business
- Russia Today
Russian fertility crisis accelerating
Russia faces a fertility crisis with the pool of women of childbearing age plummeting, Deputy Prime Minister Tatyana Golikova has warned. Speaking at a meeting with lawmakers on Tuesday, Golikova said the number of women aged 18 to 49 stood at over 39 million when the country's first demographic policy was drafted over a decade ago. That figure has now fallen to 34 million and is expected to drop to just over 27 million by 2046, the minister said. She attributed the long-term decline to the aftermath of World War II and the economic turmoil of the 1990s, both of which led to a significant reduction in the number of women of reproductive age. Golikova emphasized the need to consider these trends when developing the national project 'Family,' which aims to improve the country's demographic outlook and support young families. To reverse the trend, the government has introduced financial aid for families, including lump-sum payments for childbirth and expanded maternity benefits. It has also revived the Soviet-era 'Mother Heroine' award, which offers monetary incentives to women who give birth to or raise ten or more children. Officials have also floated policies to discourage the promotion of 'child-free' lifestyles and are considering additional tax incentives for families with multiple children. Golikova also noted that the most active reproductive group – women aged 20 to 29 – will hit its lowest level of 7.18 million in 2026, although a gradual rise is expected by 2038, when the figure may reach 9.28 million. Russia's birth rate fell to its lowest level since 1999 last year. According to the federal statistics agency, Rosstat, the country registered 1.22 million births in 2024 – a 3.4% decline from 2023. A modest recovery is forecast to begin in 2028.
Yahoo
04-07-2025
- General
- Yahoo
I've Seen The 'Real Fertility Crisis' Up Close – I Couldn't Have A Baby Even If I Wanted One
At the moment, I'm sitting surrounded by fans following a dangerously hot, climate change-fuelled heatwave. In my ears, news of international conflict plays next to conversations about welfare cuts. My bank account is pretty bare following a rent payment that's gone up slightly more than the London standard 32% since I moved here in 2019, a year that kicked off a pandemic made more likely by issues like deforestation. I never wanted kids, but even if I did, I don't think I'd feel broody right now. And if I was, child-rearing would be financially unviable, or at least deeply irresponsible. It's not that this is the first generation to reach childbearing years in the face of serious conflict, wealth inequality, and existential dread, or that I'm facing the worst end of those (I am not). But a new survey of over 14,000 people by the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) has shown that declining fertility rates across the world appear to be driven more by economic factors and other causes outside of women's individual control than by their will. 'Vast numbers of people are unable to create the families they want,' Dr Natalia Kanem, executive director of the UNFPA, said. 'The issue is lack of choice, not desire, with major consequences for individuals and societies. 'That is the real fertility crisis, and the answer lies in responding to what people say they need: paid family leave, affordable fertility care, and supportive partners.' It's a sentiment I've seen among my peers – even loved ones who really want kids simply cannot have them. 'It is impossible to buy or have affordable rent in my city,' an anonymous Mexican woman told the UNFPA when explaining why she hasn't had the children she wants yet. She's among the 54% of respondents from 14 countries who put 'economic concerns' at the top of their list. It's the most common reason friends who want kids say they've capped the number they'll have, or ruled it out entirely. 24% are affected by health issues, meanwhile (a relative who is on one of the NHS's many far-too-long waitlists has put off having kids for now), while 19% say they're just too worried about the future to grow their family to their ideal size. Almost 20% of reproductive-age adults won't be able to have the number of kids they want due to factors like these, the UNFPA report shows. That's a shame, not only because people who are keen to start a family are being prevented from doing so, but also because birth rates are below the replacement rates in a lot of the world. 'Everywhere we look, people are struggling to freely realise their reproductive aspirations,' the report reads. The report rightly warns against treating fertility rates as a resource best managed by punishing or restrictive laws. 'Whether the policies are coercive or not, there are real risks to treating fertility rates as a faucet to be turned on or off,' it reads. 'Many of the countries that are today seeking to increase fertility have, within the last 40 years, sought to decrease birth rates' – countries like China, Japan, the Republic of Korea, Thailand and Türkiye. Coercive methods of population control can be unethical and are not beneficial. 'The real solution to the crisis of reproductive agency we are facing is to build a more equitable, sustainable and caring world that supports individuals to have the families they aspire to,' the report reads. It's not about setting demands for women which can violate our human rights, the UNFPA add, but about seriously considering that 'Many people would choose to have children if they could be sure the world they are bringing them into offered a clean environment, a healthy economy and a safe place to live.' Disabled Children And Families At 'Breaking Point' Over Lack Of Support It's 2025 And Things Are Getting Worse, Not Better, For Mums At Work 'It's Impossible To Live A Good Life': The Bleak Reality Of Living Off Maternity Pay
Times
15-06-2025
- Politics
- Times
We're in a ‘global fertility crisis'. Does this woman have a solution?
Worrying about the decline in fertility used to be a fringe issue: the reserve of religious leaders, tweedy conservatives and cranky pronatalists. No longer. Last week the United Nations issued a report declaring a 'global fertility crisis'. According to Natalia Kanem, head of the UN Population Fund, which published the report, the world has 'begun an unprecedented decline in fertility rates'. The figures are stark, the consequences potentially grave. In 1950s Britain, for example, the average woman had 2.2 children. Now that figure is 1.44. We are not replacing ourselves. The question is why? The will to procreate is our most primal evolutionary urge, but something is dulling it. What's going on? • Britain needs babies! And PM should find the right words to say so The UN report cites many of the usual suspects: lack of childcare and job security, housing costs, fears about the future. One in five people surveyed in 14 countries said fears about climate change, war and pandemics held them back from reproducing. Thirty-nine per cent pointed to financial constraints. But what if there is something else going on too? One woman with a different answer is Alice Evans, a senior lecturer in the social science of development at King's College London. Evans, a brusque yet charming 38-year-old from Sevenoaks, Kent, has spent much of her professional life travelling round the world, speaking to people from Zambia to the Americas about children: why they want them, why they don't, and what is stopping them from having the family they might want. Evans acknowledges that the factors highlighted by the UN all play a role in the fertility crisis. Yet, she argues, none fully explain why this is happening everywhere, all at once — in countries with vastly different living standards, gender norms, parental leave policies and working practices. Could it be, Evans suggests, that we are spending so much time on the internet that we've stopped falling in love, stopped reproducing? Are we entertaining ourselves into oblivion? At first, this might seem outlandish. But dig into the data and it becomes surprisingly persuasive. 'Looking around the world, we see one really big change which coincides with the fall in fertility,' Evans says. Over the past 15 years or so, smartphones have become ubiquitous, and we have seen the rise of an astonishing array of online entertainment — from online sports gambling to pornography to television streaming services such as Netflix and Hulu. 'It's really only some parts of sub-Saharan Africa that have replacement fertility, which means that each woman would have over two kids in her lifetime,' Evans explains. 'In every other population in the world, we'd expect a contraction of the young working-age population.' What's so different about sub-Saharan Africa? Few people have smartphones. Evans fears that 'hyperengaging media' may be outcompeting the real-world interactions that lead to babies. We spend more time on screens and consequently more time alone. 'Young men in their twenties in the UK are spending as much time alone as men in their sixties and seventies,' she says. In today's Deliveroo and Netflix economy, we socialise less, meet fewer people, and are less likely to find the person with whom we want to have children. Dating apps are struggling to fill the gap. 'Looking both at marriage and cohabiting,' Evans says, 'both of those indicators are down. They are plummeting in Hong Kong, South Korea, across Southeast Asia, across South America.' She's just returned from Costa Rica, where the average age of marriage is 38 for men and 35 for women. In America, up to 55 per cent of under-34s have been estimated to be single. 'We know that half aren't even in a rush to get into a relationship, they aren't bothered about it,' she says. ● The nation's birthrate has plummeted. How did we get here? That fewer people feel rushed into relationships can, of course, be seen as a good thing: a sign of empowerment and freedom, particularly for women. But it's also the case that across the developed world, about a third of men say they are lonely. There is something of a vicious cycle at play too. As we socialise less, we become less charming, less interesting, less confident. 'If I spend every night scrolling or watching Bridgerton, then I'm not necessarily finessing my social skills,' Evans says. 'Maybe I don't have the confidence to just go up to a group of guys, or maybe I don't have a ready group of people to go out with.' Men and women also experience the internet in different ways. Social media algorithms show them different news, different opinions, amplifying the gender divide. It means that across many western countries, the political and cultural gap between young women (who tend to be on the left) and young men (on the right) is growing. Data from Gallup last year showed that American women are 30 percentage points more liberal than American men. In this country, many point to the exorbitant cost of childcare as an inhibiting factor for starting a family. Yet Sweden, with its abundant parental leave and universal childcare, has a birthrate very slightly lower than the UK's. Housing is expensive in many places, yes. But if housing was the major friction, Evans argues, 'we might expect young people to do the cheaper thing and live communally. Across Europe we've seen a massive increase in young men living by themselves.' Evans argues that declining fertility is a threat to our way of life. Without massive migration or some sort of boost from technology such as artificial intelligence, our working-age population will go into decline, our tax base will shrink, our welfare bill will balloon and our towns and villages will begin to resemble parts of rural Italy or Spain, which have begun to empty out. 'If you want to maintain our current standard of living and if you want to maintain economic growth, this is something we should take extremely seriously,' she says. It may also change our political leanings, with religious conservatives having more children than liberal progressives. Even the steps required to tackle climate change will be difficult without a large working population to pay the bill. So what can we do about it? There is no fix-all cure, Evans says. She herself has no children. She was born with Rokitansky syndrome, which means that she has no womb and only one ovary. For a small group of women, including her, improvements in IVF and other fertility technologies could be very important. • How do we get our babies back? More broadly, Evans suggests that if we want to see birthrates increase, and maintain our current standards of living, the government might consider providing serious tax incentives for those who have children. More youth clubs and more community groups might help, she suggests, as would making our culture more family-friendly. Evans would love to see more (and better) rom coms made, with plots celebrating finding love and having a family. She also suggests that we need a serious conversation about tech, and how we make it work for us. 'We need to tackle all these issues at once,' she says. 'No one policy, no one sledgehammer is going to fix everything.' In the midst of all this worrying news, however, there is one thing to celebrate. On Friday Evans married her partner, Usama Polani, a macroeconomist. Now, it's over to the rest of us to pair off.
Yahoo
12-06-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
A mother carriers her baby during celebrations for Eid al-Adha at Trafalgar Square in June 2025 in London, U.K. A new UNFPA report warns that as global fertility rates are declining, very high proportions of men and women in every region of the world are unable to achieve their fertility aspirations.
Why aren't people having more kids? What we should actually be asking, according to a new global report, is why so many people feel like they can't. It's often assumed that low fertility rates are due to people simply not wanting to have children, or more than one or two, but a report released Tuesday from the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) says that's not the whole picture. "Vast numbers of people are unable to create the families they want," said Dr. Natalia Kanem, UNFPA's executive director, in a news release. That lack of choice "is the real fertility crisis," she said, "and the answer lies in responding to what people say they need: paid family leave, affordable fertility care and supportive partners." The UNFPA report included polling by YouGov. About one in five of the reproductive-aged adults surveyed in 14 different countries said they won't be able to have the number of children they would like, with most saying they would likely have fewer than they wanted, or none at all. The most common barriers were economic, with 39 per cent reporting that financial limitations affected or would affect their ability to realize their desired family size. Other significant barriers included a lack of partner support, low-quality sexual and reproductive health care, a lack of access to services like affordable childcare, and pessimism about the future. The polling surveyed 14,256 adults aged 18 to 88 from 14 countries including the U.S., South Korea, Italy and India between Nov. 15 and Dec. 5, 2024. It didn't mention a margin of error but said most data was nationally representative. While Canada wasn't surveyed, the authors note the sample of countries represents a third of the global population with a mix of incomes and fertility rates. Canadians face barriers, too Previous Statistics Canada data shows a similar trend, with people aged 15 to 49 reporting in 2022 that comparable issues, like affordability, could influence their fertility intentions. And 37 per cent of those polled said they did not believe they could afford to have a child in the next three years. "Many Canadians face structural constraints that prevent them from realizing their fertility aspirations," said Rania Tfaily, an associate professor at Carleton University who studies social demography. The topic recently came up during the federal election campaign when Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre mentioned that too many young people can't afford to buy homes before their "biological clocks" have run out. But while his wording struck a nerve, his supporters said he highlighted a real concern. In 2022, 32 per cent of Canadians aged 20 to 29 didn't believe they would have access to suitable housing to start a family in the next three years, according to Statistics Canada. WATCH | Why aren't Canadians having more kids?: Canada recorded its lowest-ever fertility rate for the second year in a row in 2023, according to Statistics Canada data, at 1.26 children born per woman. It joined the ranks of "lowest-low-fertility countries," including South Korea, Spain and Japan. Of course, it's not just a lack of choice driving the rate down — having fewer children is also seen as more desirable today, notes Lisa Strohschein, a sociology professor at the University of Alberta. Statistics Canada data, for instance, consistently reported between 1990 and 2006 that Canadian women intended to have just over two children, on average, Strohschein said. But the most recent estimates from 2022 now suggest the desired number of children overall is 1.5, and that gets even lower with the younger people surveyed. "At the same time, it is the case that women tend to have fewer children than they actually want — even as they want fewer children overall," she said. Reproductive agency goes both ways The UNFPA report emphasizes that reproductive rights go both ways, and so does the global fertility crisis. "It is a crisis in reproductive agency — in the ability of individuals to make their own free, informed and unfettered choices about everything from having sex to using contraception to starting a family," says the report. One in three respondents in the YouGov poll said they or their partner had experienced an unintended pregnancy, for instance, and nearly one in five said they felt pressured to have children when they didn't want to. This can have unintended consequences on the fertility rate, the report noted, especially when policymakers attempt to control reproductive autonomy. For instance, "bans on abortion can lead to individuals voluntarily or involuntarily forgoing reproduction," the report explained. WATCH | This is what an abortion ban looks like in Texas: A recent study looking at U.S. medical claims found that tubal sterilization and vasectomies increased in the U.S. after among participants ages 19 to 26 after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade. If we want people to achieve their desired family size, we need to move away from treating fertility as a means of controlling women's bodies, Strohschein said. Incentives don't work, but what does? Meanwhile, U.S. President Donald Trump says he wants a baby boom, and has mulled incentives to try to convince more people to have children, including so-called baby bonuses. This week, he announced his plan to create tax-deferred investment accounts for babies born in the U.S. over the next four years, starting them each with $1,000, reported The Associated Press. Yet, as the UNFPA report notes, most incentives like this don't work, and can sometimes have the opposite effect. That's because they "are not creating the full range of enabling conditions that people say they need to have families," it states. So what would help people have more children — assuming that's what they want? "Guaranteed affordable and high-quality childcare for all," said Carleton University's Tfaily, as well as economic policies that could reduce people's financial stress, like better worker benefits and more stable jobs. Strohschein had similar suggestions, like making it easier for mothers to return to work after having a baby, as well as affordable childcare. However, "we still have not been all that successful in Canada with either of these two policy levers," she said. "It will be interesting to see whether our national childcare program can change this in the years to come."
CBC
12-06-2025
- Health
- CBC
Why don't people want more kids? That's the wrong question, says a new global report
Why aren't people having more kids? What we should actually be asking, according to a new global report, is why so many people feel like they can't. It's often assumed that low fertility rates are due to people simply not wanting to have children, or more than one or two, but a report released Tuesday from the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) says that's not the whole picture. "Vast numbers of people are unable to create the families they want," said Dr. Natalia Kanem, UNFPA's executive director, in a news release. That lack of choice "is the real fertility crisis," she said, "and the answer lies in responding to what people say they need: paid family leave, affordable fertility care and supportive partners." The UNFPA report included polling by YouGov. About one in five of the reproductive-aged adults surveyed in 14 different countries said they won't be able to have the number of children they would like, with most saying they would likely have fewer than they wanted, or none at all. The most common barriers were economic, with 39 per cent reporting that financial limitations affected or would affect their ability to realize their desired family size. Other significant barriers included a lack of partner support, low-quality sexual and reproductive health care, a lack of access to services like affordable childcare, and pessimism about the future. The polling surveyed 14,256 adults aged 18 to 88 from 14 countries including the U.S., South Korea, Italy and India between Nov. 15 and Dec. 5, 2024. It didn't mention a margin of error but said most data was nationally representative. While Canada wasn't surveyed, the authors note the sample of countries represents a third of the global population with a mix of incomes and fertility rates. Canadians face barriers, too Previous Statistics Canada data shows a similar trend, with people aged 15 to 49 reporting in 2022 that comparable issues, like affordability, could influence their fertility intentions. And 37 per cent of those polled said they did not believe they could afford to have a child in the next three years. "Many Canadians face structural constraints that prevent them from realizing their fertility aspirations," said Rania Tfaily, an associate professor at Carleton University who studies social demography. The topic recently came up during the federal election campaign when Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre mentioned that too many young people can't afford to buy homes before their "biological clocks" have run out. But while his wording struck a nerve, his supporters said he highlighted a real concern. In 2022, 32 per cent of Canadians aged 20 to 29 didn't believe they would have access to suitable housing to start a family in the next three years, according to Statistics Canada. Canada recorded its lowest-ever fertility rate for the second year in a row in 2023, according to Statistics Canada data, at 1.26 children born per woman. It joined the ranks of "lowest-low-fertility countries," including South Korea, Spain and Japan. Of course, it's not just a lack of choice driving the rate down — having fewer children is also seen as more desirable today, notes Lisa Strohschein, a sociology professor at the University of Alberta. Statistics Canada data, for instance, consistently reported between 1990 and 2006 that Canadian women intended to have just over two children, on average, Strohschein said. But the most recent estimates from 2022 now suggest the desired number of children overall is 1.5, and that gets even lower with the younger people surveyed. "At the same time, it is the case that women tend to have fewer children than they actually want — even as they want fewer children overall," she said. Reproductive agency goes both ways The UNFPA report emphasizes that reproductive rights go both ways, and so does the global fertility crisis. "It is a crisis in reproductive agency — in the ability of individuals to make their own free, informed and unfettered choices about everything from having sex to using contraception to starting a family," says the report. One in three respondents in the YouGov poll said they or their partner had experienced an unintended pregnancy, for instance, and nearly one in five said they felt pressured to have children when they didn't want to. This can have unintended consequences on the fertility rate, the report noted, especially when policymakers attempt to control reproductive autonomy. For instance, "bans on abortion can lead to individuals voluntarily or involuntarily forgoing reproduction," the report explained. WATCH | This is what an abortion ban looks like in Texas: This is what an abortion ban looks like in Texas 2 years ago Duration 8:27 Texas effectively banned abortion after Roe v. Wade was overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court. CBC's Ellen Mauro travelled to the state to see how people are navigating the restrictions and preparing for them to get worse. A recent study looking at U.S. medical claims found that tubal sterilization and vasectomies increased in the U.S. after among participants ages 19 to 26 after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade. If we want people to achieve their desired family size, we need to move away from treating fertility as a means of controlling women's bodies, Strohschein said. Incentives don't work, but what does? Meanwhile, U.S. President Donald Trump says he wants a baby boom, and has mulled incentives to try to convince more people to have children, including so-called baby bonuses. This week, he announced his plan to create tax-deferred investment accounts for babies born in the U.S. over the next four years, starting them each with $1,000, reported The Associated Press. Yet, as the UNFPA report notes, most incentives like this don't work, and can sometimes have the opposite effect. That's because they "are not creating the full range of enabling conditions that people say they need to have families," it states. So what would help people have more children — assuming that's what they want? "Guaranteed affordable and high-quality childcare for all," said Carleton University's Tfaily, as well as economic policies that could reduce people's financial stress, like better worker benefits and more stable jobs. Strohschein had similar suggestions, like making it easier for mothers to return to work after having a baby, as well as affordable childcare. However, "we still have not been all that successful in Canada with either of these two policy levers," she said. "It will be interesting to see whether our national childcare program can change this in the years to come."
