World fertility rates in 'unprecedented decline', UN says

bbc ^ | 06/10/2025 | Stephanie Hegarty

[BenLurkin]

The agency has taken its strongest line yet on fertility decline, warning that hundreds of millions of people are not able to have the number of children they want, citing the prohibitive cost of parenthood and the lack of a suitable partner as some of the reasons.

UNFPA surveyed 14,000 people in 14 countries about their fertility intentions. One in five said they haven't had or expect they won't have their desired number of children.

The countries surveyed - South Korea, Thailand, Italy, Hungary, Germany, Sweden, Brazil, Mexico, US, India, Indonesia, Morocco, South Africa, and Nigeria - account for a third of the global population.

They are a mix of low, middle and high-income countries and those with low and high fertility. UNFPA surveyed young adults and those past their reproductive years.

The survey, which is a pilot for research in 50 countries later this year, is limited in its scope. When it comes to age groups within countries for example, the sample sizes are too small to make conclusions.

But some findings are clear.

In all countries, 39% of people said financial limitations prevented them from having a child.

The highest response was in Korea (58%), the lowest in Sweden (19%).

UNFPA is urging caution in response to low fertility.

"Right now, what we're seeing is a lot of rhetoric of catastrophe, either overpopulation or shrinking population, which leads to this kind of exaggerated response, and sometimes a manipulative response," says Dr Kanem.

"In terms of trying to get women to have more children, or fewer."

She points out that 40 years ago China, Korea, Japan, Thailand and Turkey were all worried their populations were too high. By 2015 they wanted to boost fertility.

[T.B. Yoits]

Populations around the world were artificially increased starting more than a century ago as part of the commoditization of tax and debt slave labor.

...and the reasons haven't changed for the globalists to want to reverse the declination.

[woodbutcher1963]

I attribute that information to Peter Zeihan. I used to subscribe to his YouTube videos. Stopped because my wife couldn’t stand him.
However, he was one of the first people to state that China had peaked about five years PRIOR to covid.
That the one child policy was going to really hurt them economically.

He pointed out their population decline. Just a .1 rounding error. So sorry round eye. Like you you said IF they were willing to admit that their population had decreased by 100 million people, that it very well could be a lot more.

It goes along with all the Ghost Cities we started seeing on the internet even prior to covid.
If Nike decides to make their sneakers in Vietnam instead of China they are screwed.

[Fledermaus]

Can the lying media get it straight?

I thought it was too many people, overcrowding etc.

[bankwalker]

a by-product of feminism ...

[plain talk]

The world's population has been on almost a straight line trajectory.

The problem is most of the growth is occurring in countries that are unable to provide a decent standard of living.

[Carry_Okie]

I do agree that a stable population of 1B or so humans might be better for the planet.

Frankly, I don't think we know what is optimal. By my work, it's not enough to restore its native life-systems. When we started that project, over 80% of native plant biodiversity was no longer alive and reproducing.