In their piece, published in Nature Human Behaviour, IIASA Distinguished Emeritus Research Scholar Wolfgang Lutz and IIASA Senior Researcher Guillaume Marois, who is also an associate professor at the Asian Demographic Research Institute of the Shanghai University, respond to political and public concern over declining birth rates in highly developed countries. While low fertility is increasingly framed as a crisis, associated with population aging, labor shortages, and fiscal pressure, the authors argue that this narrative is based on outdated assumptions that no longer reflect current demographic realities.

Higher levels of education, increased labor force participation, and rising productivity can offset—and even outweigh—the effects of having fewer births. Lower fertility can enable greater investment per child, strengthening human capital and innovation while reducing dependency burdens over the coming decades.

  • thenextguy@lemmy.worldEnglish
    321·
    11 days ago

    Can they stop calling it lower fertility?

    That would imply people are trying to conceive and failing, which would be concerning.

    This is just lower birth rates. As in, people don’t want to bring kids into this mess.

    • DougPiranha42@lemmy.worldEnglish
      101·
      11 days ago

      Fertility is simply a concept in population dynamics for quantifying the number of offsprings. That’s what it is called, there is no covert agenda there.

    • Iconoclast@feddit.ukEnglish
      3·
      11 days ago

      I’d argue it’s not the scientist’s duty to alter their terminology so the layperson can better understand it - but the layperson’s duty to learn what the terms actually mean.