Why are birth rates falling across the world?

Rob Young (0:00)

Hello, and welcome to Business Daily from the BBC World Service. I'm Rob Young. Today, the global baby bust, why birth rates are falling almost everywhere. It's partly down to financial pressures.

Reese (0:14)

I know that we're making the right choice for ourselves. We can't give, at this point, children the life that we both feel like they deserve.

Rob Young (0:22)

While governments have tried to reverse the trend, the results are mixed.

Anna Rotkirch (0:27)

You ask me about a crisis, whatever world we use, this is happening. Humanity is already below replacement level and there are fewer babies born every year.

Rob Young (0:36)

Fewer babies on Business Daily from the BBC.

This band is rehearsing in a basement in a town in Wyoming in the United States. The group is called Frinn. The singer is Reese. On drums, her partner Sean. They both work full time and perform two nights a week. What they don't have and have decided for now they won't have is children. The couple met as students on a film course at university.

Reese (1:29)

I sat down next to him in the theater before an audition for a show, and I said, OK, so are we going to be best friends now?

And he said, Sure. And then the rest was history.

Rob Young (1:41)

Sean, you when you were younger, imagine that you might have a very big family, is that right?

Sean (1:46)

Yeah. So I grew up in a family of six kids.

So always had it on my mind that I would kind of continue that, like both my parents came from big families as well. But currently, with the circumstances as they are, whenever we talk about the possibility of kids, it's like, well, it can't be right now, and probably not in the near future either. We've really started to enjoy our lives as just without children. We have three or four dogs in our home that we love pretty much as children. Yeah, it's kind of something that has eluded us just from financial reasons, also just like the culture of our time.

Rob Young (2:26)

Reece, just talk me through some of the financial difficulties you think there might be if children were to come along.

Reese (2:33)

Both of us have older sisters who have multiple children, and we've seen firsthand just how expensive it can be, especially if you are both working parents. Trying to afford childcare is really difficult, and there's not a lot of support around us.

We're both living a little bit paycheck to paycheck. It is very difficult to be able to pay for things like housing, along with groceries, with the rising grocery costs, trying to just fuel your vehicle to travel to and from work.

Rob Young (3:12)

What was it like when you came to this decision, Reece, that you wouldn't actively try to have a family?

Reese (3:19)

The emotions involved, there's two that you kind of go between. One is almost a feeling of relief, because this pressure, especially as a woman, it feels like you've been released of a pressure to take on a role that can be very taxing, and can historically has prevented a lot of women from being able to pursue careers. There is this huge sense of grief, and perhaps guilt that goes along with that. And I was aware from the time I was around 16 years old, that it would be incredibly difficult for me to be able to reproduce and become pregnant because I have polycystic ovarian syndrome. So I've always kind of known that perhaps children were out of reach, but to really solidify it has been a little bit painful. And I love and cherish every child that's in my life. And sometimes you go over to a family member's house and you're holding their brand new beautiful baby and you think to yourself, man, am I missing out? Should I rethink this? And then you look at all of the other factors involved that goes into it. I know that we're making the right choice for ourselves. We can't give at this point children the life that we both feel like they deserve. That to me is a good reason not to pursue parenthood, not because you feel like you should do it, or it's something that's expected of you, especially as a woman, but because you want to do it, and also because you can give them the best life possible. And so for us, that's just not in the cards for us right now.

Rob Young (5:07)

Risi and Sean in Wyoming, we'll hear more from them later. You're listening to Business Daily from the BBC World Service.