Get the latest tech news

The relationship recession is going global

A rise in the number of single people is becoming a key driver of falling birth rates

But a weakness to the debate — perhaps even the term “birth rates” itself — is that it implies the goal is the same today as it was in the past: finding ways to encourage couples to have more children. Between 1960 and 1980, the average number of children born to a woman halved from almost four to two, even as the share of women in married couples edged only modestly lower. is not necessarily any better or worse than one filled with couples and families, but it is fundamentally different to what has come before, with major social, economic and political implications.

Get the Android app