Smartphones and weaker relationships linked to falling global birth rates
L'essentiel
- Global birth rates are declining at a record pace, with researchers linking heavy smartphone and social media use, alongside weaker face-to-face relationships, to the trend.
- The Financial Times reported that birth rates dropped sharply in multiple countries after widespread smartphone adoption.
Résumé généré par IA
Pourquoi c'est important
Global fertility rates are declining at an unprecedented pace, with researchers increasingly pointing to the impact of widespread smartphone adoption and reduced face-to-face interactions among young people. This trend is observed across various countries and is projected to lead to significant population shrinkage in regions like the EU.
Smartphones and weaker face-to-face relationships could be contributing to plunging birth rates worldwide, particularly among young people, as global fertility is declining at a record pace, the Financial Times has reported, citing researchers and demographic data.
An analysis spanning population records and Google search data found that birth rates declined sharply across multiple countries following the widespread adoption of smartphones, regardless of earlier demographic trends, the outlet wrote on Saturday.
The FT cited Jesus Fernandez-Villaverde, an economics professor at the University of Pennsylvania and a researcher on demographic change, who described falling fertility as “the big question of our time.” He argued that many of today’s economic and social problems were “downstream” from collapsing birth rates.
Researchers are increasingly linking heavy smartphone and social media use as well as weaker face-to-face relationships to declining fertility in countries around the world, including the US, UK, Brazil and South Korea, according to the report.
The FT cited a recent paper by Nathan Hudson and Hernan Moscoso-Boedo of the University of Cincinnati examining birth rates during the rollout of 4G mobile networks in the US and UK.
The researchers argued that smartphones changed how young people spend time together and sharply reduced in-person socializing. Birth rates among teenagers and young adults in the US, UK and Australia were broadly stable in the early 2000s before beginning to fall after 2007, when the devices became widely adopted.
Similar trends had been recorded across the world, the outlet said. France and Poland saw comparable declines from 2009, followed by Mexico, Morocco and Indonesia in around 2012, while Ghana, Nigeria and Senegal recorded steep drops between 2013 and 2015.
According to a Eurostat report published last month, the EU’s population is projected to shrink by 11%, or about 53 million people, over the next 75 years. The region’s population is expected to peak at 453 million in 2029 before falling below 400 million by the end of the century as fertility rates decline to around 1.3 children per woman.
As part of efforts to rebuild social connections, Russian policymakers in 2024 introduced restrictions banning students from using mobile phones in schools, with exceptions allowed only for emergencies.
À surveiller
Perspective IA — des possibilités, pas des certitudes
EU population will fall below 400 million by the end of the century.
Très probable · Long terme
Fertility rates in affected countries will continue to decline unless significant interventions are made.
Probable · Moyen terme
Questions ouvertes
- What specific mechanisms link smartphone use to reduced fertility?
- Are there effective policy interventions to counteract declining birth rates?
- How will this demographic shift impact global economies and social structures?
- What are the long-term psychological effects of reduced in-person social interaction?
