Source: Town Hall
by John C Goodman
“It is the most significant economic and sociological challenge we face. It’s worldwide. It has been worsening for decades. And there is no reason to expect the trend to change. People are not having as many children as they used to. Almost all the developed countries are below the ‘replacement rate’ of 2.1 children per woman of childbearing age. (The U.S. number is 1.6.) Overall, two-thirds of the world’s population now lives in countries below the replacement rate. If a country is below the replacement rate, its population will eventually peak and begin to decline.” [editor’s note: “Worsening” implies that it’s necessarily negative. It isn’t – TLK] (02/28/26)
https://townhall.com/columnists/johncgoodman/2026/02/28/why-is-there-a-birth-dearth-n2671784