Everywhere around the world, fertility rates have plummeted in the past 15 years. Why?

Some argue it’s because of the increased cost of living, especially housing. 

Others have famously put the blame on “childless ladies with cats”…

But scholars such as Alice Evans have asked:

Why is it, then, that fertility rates are falling everywhere – both in traditional/conservative and progressive/open societies, with high or low female unemployment, with expensive or cheap housing, etc.?

What’s the one trend that could be a common factor?

→ Everywhere around the world, in the past 15 years, people are not practicing their social skills any more, because there are so many seamingly attractive alternatives on their smartphone to spending time with others...

They don’t mingle as much with people from the opposite sex, playing, flirting, etc. As a result, there are more singles everywhere:

• 55% of young people in the US are single. 

• Spain gained 1.2 million singles in the past 3 years. 

• In Brazil, the number of people living alone has tripled in 22 years. Etc.

Now, 2 studies in the past weeks point out to the same direction:

→ One established a causal relationship (not just a correlation) between the deployment of broadband & 4G and fertility.

→ The second found that the “diffusion of the iPhone explains 33–52% of the decline in the general fertility rate among women aged 15–44.”

The fertility crisis is likely to be the demographic consequence of a much deeper erosion of human connection caused by digital hyperconnection.

By Diego Hidalgo