Birthrates Are Plummeting Worldwide. Why?
About this episode
Why do birthrates plummet as societies get richer? Klein poses the puzzle; demographer Jennifer Sciubba answers it's a shift in values and norms: as education, income, and options expand, children become one choice competing with careers, free time, and self-expression, and the logistics of "family planning" make delaying easy. She notes India fell below replacement without getting rich, showing state policy can drive fertility down — but no country has sustainably raised it back up. Romania's coercive pro-natalism under Ceausescu worked only while enforced; South Korea, Japan, Hungary, and Scandinavia have spent billions with nothing to show, partly because culture blunts policy. Modern parenting has become brutally intensive — a working mother today spends more time with her kids than a 1960s stay-at-home mom — and low fertility feeds on itself. Sciubba's verdict: 1.5–1.9 isn't doom if societies adapt; support families for their own sake rather than chasing a number.