Birth Rates: Are We Running Out of Babies??

What It Covers

Birth rates are declining globally to below replacement level of 2.1 children per woman. The episode examines whether this constitutes a crisis, explores causes including women's workforce participation, and evaluates policy solutions like childcare subsidies and parental leave.

Key Questions Answered

• •South Korea's fertility collapse: Total fertility rate dropped to 0.75 births per woman in 2024, the world's lowest. This creates visible impacts including hundreds of schools closing, one first-grader classes, and elderly poverty rates climbing as fewer workers support aging populations through taxes.
• •Gender role mismatch drives decline: Women's education and workforce participation increased rapidly in countries like South Korea, but domestic expectations remained unchanged. Elementary students dismissed at 1PM with no childcare infrastructure forces impossible choices between careers and motherhood, making time economically expensive.
• •Church intervention effectiveness: Georgian Orthodox Patriarch Ilya II offered to personally baptize third-plus children, boosting fertility from 1.76 to 2.3 within 24 months and creating 40,000 additional births. However, the effect proved temporary and requires an extraordinarily trusted cultural figure to replicate.
• •Policy impact remains modest: Childcare expansion increasing slots by one percentage point raises first birth odds by ten percent. Austria's parental leave extension from one to two years added 12 births per 100 women. These help but don't reverse long-term decline or reach replacement levels.