On Türkiye’s recent rapid fertility decline
In the last decade, Türkiye has recorded the steepest fertility decline in Europe. Period indicators, however, reveal only part of the story. With a birth-order analysis Sutay Yavuz shows that … Read more
birth rate
Economic cycles and first births among natives and migrants’ children in Belgium
Economic cycles shape first births in Belgium and help explain aggregate fertility trends. However, as Wood, Neels and Marynissen show, pro-cyclical fertility holds for natives and European descendants, but not … Read more
Extending working lives: how European birth cohorts compare
Promoting longer working lives has become a key policy response to population ageing. Jan Einhoff finds that successive European birth cohorts have spent a growing number of years in employment … Read more
South Korea’s Radical Solution to Asia’s Birth Rate Crisis
South Korea is facing a demographic time bomb. The nation is grappling with the world’s lowest fertility rate and a rapidly aging population, which threaten its very future. The unfolding … Read more
The kinship gap. When just a few years of difference make a difference
Rapid decline in a country’s birth and death rates creates a “kinship gap”, leaving people born just years apart with vastly different family support networks. Sha Jiang discusses the ensuing … Read more
What Happens When Demographics Change Forever?
Are we on the brink of population collapse? Some economists and tech billionaires (like Elon Musk) think so. As noted in a recent NY Times article about Peak Population, birth … Read more
Are population policies still relevant in an era of climate change?
Climate change is caused much more by generalized pursuit of throughput growth and the consumption patterns of the wealthy than by population growth. Structural changes would be needed in global … Read more
How many relatives do the Swedish have?
Little is known about the composition of kinship groups and family members outside the household, and how this evolves by age and over time. Martin Kolk and colleagues, exploiting exhaustive … Read more
Replacement fertility with immigration in Europe
Recent decreases in fertility rates in European countries have fueled gloom and doom about the prospect of shrinking populations. As Nick Parr shows, the levels of fertility that would sustain … Read more
The missing consequences of birth spacing on child outcomes
Short birth intervals are often believed to be detrimental for children. While this may be true in some (poor) settings, and for some birth outcomes (preterm birth and low birth … Read more
Changing attitudes may explain the decline in US birth rates since 2007
The US birth rate has fallen since the 2007 Great Recession, with no signs of reversing. This decline has occurred among women of different age subgroups, education levels, races and … Read more