Real reasons people do not have the number of children they want revealed in new report
Guardian3 days
UN Report: Socioeconomic Barriers Block Desired Family Size
Above: A newborn in the neonatal department of Taizhou People's Hospital in Nanjing, China, on Jan. 28, 2025. Image copyright: Costfoto/NurPhoto via Getty Images
The Spin
Narrative A
For decades, governments from across the world have tried to engineer fertility rates through policies ranging from coercion to financial incentives. These measures, however, have consistently failed to impact long-term fertility and have, at times, had unintended consequences. To address the global fertility crisis, countries must empower their citizens, many of whom desire children, by removing the social and economic barriers that constrain their choices.
Narrative B
The primary driver of falling fertility rates is the decline of marriage as a social convention. In America alone, research suggests that 75% of the decline in fertility since 2007 is due to falling marriage rates, as those who did marry had children just like their parents and grandparents. Consequently, the solution is a pro-marriage agenda that provides economic support and opportunities for young people who choose to tie the knot.
Narrative C
While global economic trends are certainly having a negative effect on fertility rates worldwide, as is a shift away from the convention of marriage, the fact can't be ignored that, in the Western world, women have been sold a lie of economic parity which now manifests in a lower fertility rate. For a generation once told they could "have it all," competing priorities of a career and parenthood, all amid a failing childcare and housing infrastructure, mean many are left with no choice but to risk sacrificing independence and relationship parity for a better biological chance of motherhood.