No Time for Children? The Key Questions

Abstract

While many are concerned about global overpopulation and its impact, this book takes another view. Silently, with little fanfare, a dramatic change is taking place: people are having fewer children. The UN World Fertility Patterns (2007) note that in the world the total fertility rate (TFR), or the lifetime number of children women are calculated to have, has declined from 4.5 in 1970–75 to 2.6 in 2000–05. In 2010 it was 2.5 (see Table 1.1). The decline affects all regions of the world, but it started in Europe where, in all but three countries, the TFR has fallen below two. In recent years, a particularly dramatic decline has been seen in some Asian countries.