When my mother was born, there were fewer than 3bn people in the world. When I was born, there were almost 5bn, and when I gave birth to my daughter, there were 7.7bn. She may live to see the beginning of a new era: the point at which the number of people on the planet begins to decline.
The pandemic has caused a baby bust of historic proportions in some countries. In Spain, 20 per cent fewer babies were born in December 2020 than in the same month a year earlier, the lowest number since 1941 when such records began. Births fell 22 per cent in Italy and 13 per cent in France.
There isn’t a dearth of babies everywhere (some countries, such as Germany, have seen a mini boom) and the pandemic’s impact on procreation may prove fleeting. But it has focused attention on the long-term decline in the number of babies women are having more or less everywhere.