Birth rates have dropped sharply in some of the world's richest states and are likely to stay low as economic worries leave people weighing the costs of having children, a report from the OECD has said.
Many in OECD member countries are now choosing to have children later in life or not at all, it said in a paper released on Thursday. "Both young men and women increasingly find meaning in life outside of parenthood," it added.
The total fertility rate dropped to 1.5 children per woman in 2022 from 3.3 in 1960 on average across OECD countries, the report said, using a unit measuring the average number of children born per woman over a lifetime.