Fertility rate falls to record low in England and Wales
https://www.thetimes.com/article/dec9bd88-9026-4400-ad15-c0a60bf4c23f?utm_medium=Social&utm_source=Reddit#Echobox=1756388244
Fertility rate falls to record low in England and Wales
https://www.thetimes.com/article/dec9bd88-9026-4400-ad15-c0a60bf4c23f?utm_medium=Social&utm_source=Reddit#Echobox=1756388244
19 Comments
The fertility rate in England and Wales has fallen for the third year in a row to reach the lowest levels on record, figures show, as the average age of parents rose.
Last year the total fertility rate fell to 1.41 children per woman — the lowest since comparable figures were first collected in 1938, according to data released by the Office of National Statistics (ONS).
This figure was down from 1.42 children in 2023 and is the third drop in fertility levels in as many years. The only regions where the total fertility rate increased were the West Midlands, where it rose from 1.56 in 2023 to 1.59 last year, and London, which experienced a jump from 1.33 to 1.35 over the same period
And the party leading the polls wants to deport 600k mostly working age people when we’ve a lot of old people who will need care. 45% support that according to YouGov (who didn’t remind them about the elderly numbers first). Do they really want that?
It’s economic suicide to get kids unless you have things sorted and settled. Add that people get into relationships later and later and you get a situation where it just isn’t that feasible anymore.
Can’t imagine why people don’t want to bring kids into the world. Everything is so shiny, happy and affordable. /s
The bot removed my first comment because it was too short. Now I am adding some verbiage to my question in the hope it’ll leave me alone. The question was, is this for every demographic?
NHS also unwilling to support married couples with fertility issues unless they fit strict guidelines, so you have to go private, which creates a barrier to entry and will cause a loss of birth rates.
If the birthrate drives the economy then pay people living wages where they can afford to have kids. That means affordable housing, affordable services for child care etc. I don’t have kids, cost too much.
We all know its price largely of homes. People no how terrible our rentals are so most want to save for their own house before having kids which just takes forever and have smaller houses resulting in few babies. Then add the costs of larger cars, more childcare, more food etc its simple economics.
Is anyone surprised by article after article about plummeting fertility rates? We get it, the world is terrible and unaffordable.
Women “don’t need a man” and are too busy with their careers.
So, how is this a surprise?
Good news: we won’t need women to have children in a few decades, when artificial wombs are widely available.
When you price people out of parenthood.
Birth rate falls.
Surprisepikachuface.jpeg
Good news there is a robot womb being developed to bring capitalist slaves to term. You humans are done.
Lower taxes and people will be able to afford to have more kids.
You want kids to have as good life or better than what you had. Everyone and their sick grandpa knows CO2 ppm will be rising 4 ppm annually and therefore earth will be basically uninhabitable in a few decades.
People keep talking about economic reasons why people aren’t having kids but the thing is, most rich people aren’t having kids either, how many kids does leonardo dicaprio have? None? How many kids does Song hye kyo have? None? The truth is, plenty of rich people who can afford to have kids simply aren’t having them because simply people don’t want to, earlier when there was no means of entertainment, people used to have plenty of kids, now people have other things that give them happiness.
no money, no future, no kids, its so obvious it hurts
As the world currently is and trending, it’s unethical to bring another person into this epic disappointment. Adopt. Provide a loving home to a fellow traveler on this journey of fleeting joy and unavoidable loss that none of us choose to depart on.
To be fair it’s not surprising. The cost of living, houses, child care and wages that had stagnated in 14 years of ‘austerity’ and suddenly it’s “Why are people getting into relationships later in life and delaying having kids?”
It’s not just a matter of people not feeling financially secure enough to have kids, though that is a big part of it.
Part of it is our consumerist culture trains us to be inherently self-centered. We have to consume, to buy the next thing, to enjoy the (no longer very) cheap luxuries our corporate overlords rub in our faces with endless ads. We’re conditioned to want to enjoy personal pleasure so we will keep funneling money into the pockets of the rich. Add in the fact that life seems to get more stressful and complicated with each passing year and we’re even more incentivized to just sit back and enjoy ourselves whenever and however we can.
The problem with that is…kids aren’t selfish luxuries. They’re work, an investment of selfless love with no expectation of a return in profit or it being a fun time. As a society, we’ve been trained to look at kids as a drain on our personal freedoms to consume.
That’s why even countries with very generous childcare, maternity leave and social safety nets aren’t that much better off in terms of birthrate.
If we want to return our birthrates to stable levels (note: I’m not saying we should or shouldn’t, I’m not taking a stance on that here) then throwing money at the problem isn’t going to do much to fix it. We need a cultural paradigm shift, one where we don’t constantly tell everyone that happiness and fulfillment can only come from endless consumption.