If a woman has not had her first child by the time she is 30, statistically, she has only a 50% chance of ever having a baby. It’s a shocking fact that we can no longer ignore.
We find ourselves in a space where couples experience involuntary childlessness, i.e. those who always wanted children but left it too late. For many, had they been more aware of the biological realities, they may have changed their priorities.
As politicians are knocking on your doors in the coming weeks, in advance of the June local and European elections, it’s unlikely you will see any of their manifestos addressing the socio economic ticking time bomb of Ireland’s falling birth rates. In fact 70% of the world’s countries’ populations are below, or close to below, replacement level.
Birthgap
A ‘birthgap’ basically means there are more aging adults than babies replacing them. Yet no one is seeing the issue with a near future where playgrounds and schools are empty while nursing homes and hospitals are full.
Ireland has one of the fastest growing populations in Europe and we, like every other industrialised nation in the world, are at the tipping point of population replacement in the wrong direction. With this future, how can you possibly have a state pension, and when you retire who will replace you?
Documentary filmmaker, and data scientist, Stephen J. Shaw produced ‘Birthgap – Childless World’ – it’s free to see on YouTube. As part of his research he looked into 24 countries to try to understand the cause of the phenomenon of declining birth rates.
“Family size wasn’t changing much, what was changing was the number of those who were childless”
What Shaw was fascinated with was why birth rates were falling at the same time in some countries but not others. He was intrigued by the trends emerging in culturally diverse countries, he thought he might find a common thread in the move towards smaller families.
But what he found was that in general family size wasn’t changing much, what was changing was the number of those who were childless.
For example, the number of childless people in the UK has grown to one in four over the past five decades, yet the number of children that mothers are having has increased slightly, from 2.3 in the 1970s to 2.4 today.
He explained; “There is a common misperception that most childless people never wanted children in the first place, or have a medical condition that prevents them from becoming parents. Research, however, suggests that 80% of people without children are childless through circumstance, with the most common reason being not having a partner at the right time”.
Priority
The heartbreaking reality is that when you look at, for example, US research of more than 5,000 women, between up to 96% say they want to have children, but nowhere close to that figure achieves that goal. But it is a taboo to even suggest that motherhood is a priority, we are meant to put career, owning property, or not being ‘tied down’ ahead of all else.
Shaw explained he, like so many others, thought that rather than population control being one of the biggest threats to humanity, it was actually population collapse we needed to be fearful of. As the data in the documentary clearly outlines, when you examine the facts there is no data to support the overpopulation hysteria.
“The pied pipers of anti-natalism, and ideologists of various persuasions, still preach about overpopulation during this time of rapidly falling birth rates. The reality is that we no longer need to be concerned about growth in the total global headcount.”
Choosing when, if at all, to have children is a deeply personal decision, but does that mean we can’t discuss and educate ourselves on the reality that there is a fertility window, and that might mean making different life choices and changing the paths you may take?
“Not only is this leaving victims of unplanned childlessness, but an attitudinal shift is crucial to our world thriving”
Some would prefer to bury their heads in the sand. When Cambridge University tried to show this documentary, protestors got the screening cancelled, as it was apparently too controversial to hear women’s voices around the world talking about motherhood.
The cultural pressure to delay ‘settling down’ and to put career as the holy grail above all else has resulted in generations being robbed of their dream of becoming parents. Perhaps we need to focus more on telling the story that marriage is not the capstone but the cornerstone of life.
Why is it so wrong to talk about considering parenthood at a younger age and accepting the reality that the rapid shift in getting married and beginning families at a later stage will have a devastating personal and societal impact.
The documentary also explores unplanned childlessness as a cause of grief and pain. Yet we still seem to tiptoe around the realities of biology. Not only is this leaving victims of unplanned childlessness, but an attitudinal shift is crucial to our world thriving.
Future
In Jody Day’s powerful TedX talk on her experience of childlessness she explains that 20% of British women born, like her in the 1960s, turned 45 without having a child, double that of the previous generation, and that number is ever increasing.
And remember, it is not childlessness by choice, it’s by design. Modern societal and cultural pressures have led to a seismic shift, in a short space of time, and have changed when we think we should commit to someone, and start a family.
All industrialised countries have fertility rates below replacement level, no society can survive long term in this way. Only a tiny minority actually want to be childless, yet as the data shows, it’s the number of women having no children, not by choice, that has risen so sharply. This is not about shrinking families, it’s about women never having any children when they always pictured that in their life plan.
Parenthood needs to be seen as a societal and Governmental priority to be supported, nurtured, and celebrated. This ‘birthgap’ is the epidemic that dare not speak its name, but we must start speaking – our survival depends on it.
Wendy Grace speaks to fertility expert Dr Phil Boyle about Ireland’s falling fertility rate and the impact that the ‘birthgap’ will have in an episode of our podcast The Confession Box. Listen to it here.
The ‘birthgap’ is something that we can no longer continue to ignore
If a woman has not had her first child by the time she is 30, statistically, she has only a 50% chance of ever having a baby. It’s a shocking fact that we can no longer ignore.
We find ourselves in a space where couples experience involuntary childlessness, i.e. those who always wanted children but left it too late. For many, had they been more aware of the biological realities, they may have changed their priorities.
As politicians are knocking on your doors in the coming weeks, in advance of the June local and European elections, it’s unlikely you will see any of their manifestos addressing the socio economic ticking time bomb of Ireland’s falling birth rates. In fact 70% of the world’s countries’ populations are below, or close to below, replacement level.
Birthgap
A ‘birthgap’ basically means there are more aging adults than babies replacing them. Yet no one is seeing the issue with a near future where playgrounds and schools are empty while nursing homes and hospitals are full.
Ireland has one of the fastest growing populations in Europe and we, like every other industrialised nation in the world, are at the tipping point of population replacement in the wrong direction. With this future, how can you possibly have a state pension, and when you retire who will replace you?
Documentary filmmaker, and data scientist, Stephen J. Shaw produced ‘Birthgap – Childless World’ – it’s free to see on YouTube. As part of his research he looked into 24 countries to try to understand the cause of the phenomenon of declining birth rates.
What Shaw was fascinated with was why birth rates were falling at the same time in some countries but not others. He was intrigued by the trends emerging in culturally diverse countries, he thought he might find a common thread in the move towards smaller families.
But what he found was that in general family size wasn’t changing much, what was changing was the number of those who were childless.
For example, the number of childless people in the UK has grown to one in four over the past five decades, yet the number of children that mothers are having has increased slightly, from 2.3 in the 1970s to 2.4 today.
He explained; “There is a common misperception that most childless people never wanted children in the first place, or have a medical condition that prevents them from becoming parents. Research, however, suggests that 80% of people without children are childless through circumstance, with the most common reason being not having a partner at the right time”.
Priority
The heartbreaking reality is that when you look at, for example, US research of more than 5,000 women, between up to 96% say they want to have children, but nowhere close to that figure achieves that goal. But it is a taboo to even suggest that motherhood is a priority, we are meant to put career, owning property, or not being ‘tied down’ ahead of all else.
Shaw explained he, like so many others, thought that rather than population control being one of the biggest threats to humanity, it was actually population collapse we needed to be fearful of. As the data in the documentary clearly outlines, when you examine the facts there is no data to support the overpopulation hysteria.
“The pied pipers of anti-natalism, and ideologists of various persuasions, still preach about overpopulation during this time of rapidly falling birth rates. The reality is that we no longer need to be concerned about growth in the total global headcount.”
Choosing when, if at all, to have children is a deeply personal decision, but does that mean we can’t discuss and educate ourselves on the reality that there is a fertility window, and that might mean making different life choices and changing the paths you may take?
Some would prefer to bury their heads in the sand. When Cambridge University tried to show this documentary, protestors got the screening cancelled, as it was apparently too controversial to hear women’s voices around the world talking about motherhood.
The cultural pressure to delay ‘settling down’ and to put career as the holy grail above all else has resulted in generations being robbed of their dream of becoming parents. Perhaps we need to focus more on telling the story that marriage is not the capstone but the cornerstone of life.
Why is it so wrong to talk about considering parenthood at a younger age and accepting the reality that the rapid shift in getting married and beginning families at a later stage will have a devastating personal and societal impact.
The documentary also explores unplanned childlessness as a cause of grief and pain. Yet we still seem to tiptoe around the realities of biology. Not only is this leaving victims of unplanned childlessness, but an attitudinal shift is crucial to our world thriving.
Future
In Jody Day’s powerful TedX talk on her experience of childlessness she explains that 20% of British women born, like her in the 1960s, turned 45 without having a child, double that of the previous generation, and that number is ever increasing.
And remember, it is not childlessness by choice, it’s by design. Modern societal and cultural pressures have led to a seismic shift, in a short space of time, and have changed when we think we should commit to someone, and start a family.
All industrialised countries have fertility rates below replacement level, no society can survive long term in this way. Only a tiny minority actually want to be childless, yet as the data shows, it’s the number of women having no children, not by choice, that has risen so sharply. This is not about shrinking families, it’s about women never having any children when they always pictured that in their life plan.
Parenthood needs to be seen as a societal and Governmental priority to be supported, nurtured, and celebrated. This ‘birthgap’ is the epidemic that dare not speak its name, but we must start speaking – our survival depends on it.
Wendy Grace speaks to fertility expert Dr Phil Boyle about Ireland’s falling fertility rate and the impact that the ‘birthgap’ will have in an episode of our podcast The Confession Box. Listen to it here.
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