Fertility rates are tailing off sooner than expected

“HOW PARAMOUNT the future is to the present, when one is surrounded by children,” wrote Charles Darwin in 1852, reflecting on his own parenthood. If he saw current birth rates, he might reconsider: it is not the throng of kids that would make him think about his dotage, but the lack of them. Across the world, birth rates are declining more rapidly than expected. That worries pensioners and policymakers.

https://www.economist.com/graphic-detail/2023/06/14/the-great-global-baby-bust-is-under-way