"In previous decades, the world’s fertility rate went down because couples had fewer children. Now the main reason is that there are fewer couples………………….across a wide range of countries, the decline in births and coupling is much steeper among those with the least education and lowest incomes. By contrast, the share of university graduates forming couples and having children is stable or even rising in some cases."

This makes me wonder about correlation and causation. If the poorer working class people acquired smartphones at the same time as their wages & housing opportunities drastically decreased, who is to blame for their lack of babies?

Ironically, the people who get most worked up about this issue are the least likely to countenance political changes that might reverse the trends. Anyway, today's 8 billion people seem like plenty of humans. Who cares if there's never 10 or 20 billion?

Why birth rates are falling everywhere all at once: Homes and phones are part of the reason for the demographic shift changing our world