The UN warns that economic barriers, not a lack of desire to have children, explain low birth rates.

The world has been experiencing an unprecedented decline in fertility rates for decades —from 5 children per woman in 1950 to 2.25 children in 2024— prompting conservative politicians in the West to warn of an “imminent demographic collapse,” even though with over 8 billion people sharing the planet and increasing longevity, the human population has never been higher. At the same time, they warn of a population explosion in the Global South. The reality is that millions of people are childless or have fewer children than they desire due to economic and social barriers that prevent them. This is the main finding of the latest report from the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), released this Tuesday, titled The True Fertility Crisis: The Search for Reproductive Agency in a Changing World, where the organization highlights that the most intimate reproductive decisions, such as using contraceptives or starting a family, are being undermined or denied to millions of people.

“This is not a story about people giving up on motherhood or fatherhood, but about people being prevented from exercising that right due to economic, social, and systemic barriers,” stated UNFPA Executive Director Natalia Kanem during an online meeting with the press. “Even in countries with the lowest fertility rates, most people want to have two or more children. The problem is that they cannot,” she added.

Even in countries with the lowest fertility rates, most people want to have two or more children

Natalia Kanem, Executive Director of UNFPA

To reach this conclusion, the UN fund conducted a survey with over 14,000 people in 14 countries representing more than a third of the global population. The results are striking: one in five adults of reproductive age believes they will not be able to have the number of children they want. Among those who have completed their families, 31% reported having fewer children than they desired. And one in four says they wanted to have a child but could not do so when they wished.

The reasons are multiple, but one factor stands out above all: the economy. About 39% of respondents stated that financial limitations affected or would affect their ability to have the number of children they desire. The lack of access to decent housing, job insecurity, and the high cost of education and childcare are some of the most cited reasons.

But there are also others, such as “concerns about conflicts, the environment, or the political climate in which one lives,” Kanem points out, recalling that a young Ukrainian told them she wanted to have children but considered daily the difficulties families face in her country. “I don’t want a life like that for myself or my future children,” she reportedly stated, according to the UNFPA director.

The report, therefore, dismantles, according to Kanem, one of the most repeated premises by certain conservative governments and pronatalist movements: that today’s youth has lost interest in forming families. Instead, it reveals that the frustration of reproductive desires is a global phenomenon. It occurs in both high- and low-fertility countries, among both women and men, and among married or single individuals, heterosexual or LGBTIQ+.

Threat to Freedom

However, just as millions of people do not have the children they desire, the UNFPA survey also reveals that one in five people claims to have been pressured to have children when they did not want to, and one in three adult women has had an unwanted pregnancy.

“Many countries are facing aging and declining populations, labor shortages, and rising healthcare and pension costs. These are real concerns that, however, are leading some to erroneous conclusions,” notes Kanem. The UNFPA director refers to the “insistence that women and young people have more children,” instead of “promoting women’s participation in the labor market, which has been shown to improve economic productivity in the context of an aging population.” She adds that “in some cases, it may be your neighbor who urges you to marry before it’s too late; in others, it may be the Government, with announcements” that place the burden of reproduction on women, she suggests.

There are governments that go further and “impose restrictions on the availability of contraceptives”

Natalia Kanem, Executive Director of UNFPA

But some governments go further and “impose restrictions on the availability of contraceptives” or limit the right to abortion, Kanem denounces. The lack of access to safe abortion, the UNFPA director recalls, “leads to unsafe abortions,” which is one of the leading causes of maternal mortality worldwide. Furthermore, among women who survive unsafe abortions, many suffer infections that are among the main causes of secondary infertility. “The real threat is not the decline in fertility rates, but the threat to people’s freedom and their ability to choose,” she concludes.

And while heterosexual women living with partners are pushed towards motherhood, “LGBTIQ+ individuals and single people are often denied access to fertility services, while immigrants are sometimes denied access to affordable maternity care,” Kanem denounces. And she asks, “Who is considered deserving of the option to start a family?”

In sub-Saharan Africa, infertility, which causes significant stigma especially for women, is the main reason for gynecological consultations, according to the UNFPA. Yet, “only 2% of affected couples have access to effective treatment.”

In the face of the obsession with birth rates and demographic composition, the UNFPA proposes a shift in focus: instead of asking how many children a country needs, the question should be what people need to be able to have —or not have— the children they desire. And the answer involves ensuring quality sexual and reproductive health services for all, promoting reconciliation policies (paternity leave or affordable childcare), advancing gender equality in caregiving, or considering migration as a valid strategy in response to an aging population.

According to the report’s conclusion, “the real problem is not that individual reproductive decisions do not align with the objectives of a state or an economy, but that environments and policies are misaligned with people’s desires.”