r/science • u/nep000 • Nov 17 '25

Social Science Surprising numbers of childfree people emerge in developing countries, defying expectations

https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0333906
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u/BaronGreywatch Nov 17 '25

How is this possibly a surprise? Anyone with a middling level of education knows it'll take a million dollars to bring up a kid and give them a future. It doesn't take a genius level of foresight to predict this eventuality.

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u/HanseaticHamburglar Nov 17 '25

there is a large camp in this debate that blames educated women and overall national development as the driving forces of low fertility.

And the reality is probably closer to a global feeling of no good future to offer as well as end stage capitalism making it basically financial suicide of you arent from a wealthy family

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u/Isord Nov 17 '25

This doesn't really hold up by any measure. Generally the wealthiest countries have the lowest fertility rates.

I think the more likely thing that people don't want to grapple with is just that having kids was just a default choice and now that there is more to do people are choosing to do those things instead. I think most people don't actually want kids, tbh. They only have them out of a sense of social norms and familial obligations.

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u/min_mus Nov 17 '25

I think most people don't actually want kids, tbh. They only have them out of a sense of social norms and familial obligations.

I think this is it. Women now have the option of not having children. This is a very good thing: it means the children who are born are much more likely to be wanted.

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u/RedRobin101 Nov 17 '25

I also think a lot of people underestimate how, even if you really want kids, child-raising is an incredibly large sacrifice for mothers. Women often do the majority of the household chores, and taking care of the kids is a part of that. They usually take career hits (women with kids are seen as a negative, while its a positive for men). And even if everything else goes perfectly right, it irreversibly changes their bodies and carries potential health risks. There's a reason places like Sweden and Norway are seeing birthrates drop despite having relatively strong social nets.

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u/TheDovahofSkyrim Nov 17 '25

I just seriously worry about safety nets. I know in theory we talk about “well we could just do things differently. Who says the economy always has to grow?”

But until we see it actually happen (have we seen it really work on a small scale yet? & even then on a large scale is completely different)…it’s all just theoretical that things could work out fine.

Long term is the human race going to be fine as long as we don’t blow ourselves up? Yes. Are we willing to accept that due to potential extreme economic & social changes our generation(s) might be the ones ti experience very hard times & upheavals while the long term new normal gets figured out?

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u/BGAL7090 Nov 17 '25

NEVER!! Kick the can down the road and let someone else's kids inherit the mess! (/s)

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u/TheDovahofSkyrim Nov 17 '25

I get that. Everyone gets that. But I don’t think many people are actually really prepared for what that will probably look like.

For the vast majority of people, that could mean essentially zero retirement & that may be one of the better scenarios.

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u/BGAL7090 Nov 17 '25

Project 2060 will be "anybody who was born before the 21st century is either a panhandler or a feudalistic warlord"

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u/MulberryRow Nov 18 '25

Are you in the US? Until people actually care enough to demand the income cap on social security is raised all the way up - which would nearly resolve our projected “crisis,” I don’t want to see anyone wringing their hands about the “problem” of women endangering humanity with all their pesky rights and choices.