Economic insecurity is a major factor driving declining fertility globally, according to the 2025 State of World Population report produced by the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA).

Financial worries – including job insecurity, housing and childcare costs – were key factors influencing over half of those interviewed to opt for fewer or no children, according to UNFPA.

A quarter of respondents also cited health issues, including difficulty in conceiving,  while 19% said fears about the future including climate change, were impacting their decision to have children.

Some 14,000 people – women and men – across 14 countries representing almost 40% of the global population were interviewed for the report, which was released last week.

The countries covered (from lowest to highest fertility rates) were: Korea, Thailand, Italy, Germany, Hungary, Sweden, Brazil, Mexico, United States, India, Indonesia, Morocco, South Africa and Nigeria.

People from Korea (58%) and South Africa (53%) were most concerned about economic insecurity, followed by Thailand and Morocco.

“Vast numbers of people are unable to create the families they want,” said Dr Natalia Kanem, Executive Director of UNFPA. 

Lack of choice

“The issue is lack of choice, not desire, with major consequences for individuals and societies. That is the real fertility crisis, and the answer lies in responding to what people say they need: paid family leave, affordable fertility care, and supportive partners,” she added.

UNFPA describes the fertility crisis as a “crisis in reproductive agency – in the ability of individuals to make their own free, informed and unfettered choices about everything from having sex to using contraception to starting a family”. 

The human population is projected to peak within the century, and a quarter of people currently live in a country where the population size is estimated to have already peaked. 

However, one in three adults surveyed had also experienced an unintended pregnancy, and 20% of people reported being pressured to have children when they didn’t want to.

The most marginalised people have experienced few of the advances in sexual and reproductive health and rights, according to the report. UNFPA data over the past five years shows that about 10% of  women are unable to decide whether to use contraception, and roughly one quarter are unable to say no to sex. 

The report warns against simplistic or coercive responses to declining birth rates – such as baby bonuses or fertility targets – noting that these policies are largely ineffective and can violate human rights.

It cites Romania’s 1966 ban on abortion and contraception as a warning. While the ban led to an immediate increase in total fertility rate from 1.87 births in 1966 to 3.59 in 1967, “by 1970, the fertility rate had fallen below three” and the consequences were “grave”.

“By the time the policy ended in 1989, Romania had the highest maternal mortality rate in Europe, some 87% of which was attributable to unsafe abortion, as well as vast numbers of abandoned children,” according to the report.

Instead, UNFPA urges governments to empower people to make reproductive decisions freely, including by investing in “affordable housing, decent work, parental leave, and the full range of reproductive health services and reliable information”. 

It advocates for “a tailored mix of economic, social, and political measures” to help people to have the families that they want.

Image Credits: Jaya Banerji/MMV.