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Across london, primary schools are under threat. In Tulse Hill, in the south of the capital, parents and local politicians are trying to save Fenstanton Primary School, pleading that it [...]

POSTERITY HAS not been kind to Widow Luo. Bereaved as a young mother in the late Qing dynasty, her refusal to remarry earned her the emperor's praise and a zhenjie [...]

If current forecasts are accurate, 2064 will be the first year in centuries when fewer babies are born than people die. Birth rates in India will fall to below the [...]

WE have two covers this week. In most of the world we consider why baby-boosting policies won't work. As birth rates plunge in rich countries, many politicians are keen to [...]

As birth rates plunge, many politicians want to pour money into policies that might lead women to have more babies. Donald Trump has vowed to dish out bonuses if he [...]

Three decades ago, when women now entering their 40s became fertile, East Asian governments had reason to celebrate. If a South Korean woman behaved in the same way as her [...]

To read more of The Economist's data journalism visit our https://www.economist.com/graphic-detail page. BABYMAKING, IT SEEMS, is not as popular as it used to be. In 1990 America's fertility rate—the number [...]

TO DRIVE AROUND Lathrop, a small town in California's Central Valley, is to see a rural community in the throes of rapid development. Shelley Burcham is the town's economic-development administrator. [...]

We had two covers this week. Our British edition looks at https://www.economist.com/leaders/2023/06/01/scotland-has-been-on-a-ten-year-holiday-from-reality . Everywhere else we focus on the profound economic consequences of https://www.economist.com/leaders/2023/06/01/global-fertility-has-collapsed-with-profound-economic-consequences . In 2000 the world's fertility [...]

In the roughly 250 years since the Industrial Revolution the world's population, like its wealth, has exploded. Before the end of this century, however, the number of people on the [...]

The scars left by China's population-control policies are clear. Last year, its population started to fall for the first time since 1962; its working-age population has been declining for a [...]

THE DEMOGRAPHIC milestones come thick and fast in 'My Home in the Forest', the official tourism anthem of Yichun, a sprawling city in China's far north-east. The song was released [...]

In the weeks leading up to the lunar new year on January 22nd, millions of people in China travelled back to their home towns to celebrate the country's biggest holiday. [...]

'WE ARE THE last generation.' As news, released on January 17th, that the country's population had fallen last year for the first time in decades swept Chinese social media, some [...]

Innovative ways to cope with demographic decline I N RELATION TO demography, as well as public debt, Italy is often compared to Japan. It has Europe's second-lowest birth rate, at [...]

Native-born women in America had more babies during the pandemic B IRTH RATES often fall during hard times, but the covid-19 pandemic was no ordinary economic downturn. On the one [...]

Asia's advanced economies now have lower birth rates than Japan T HE LIST of things for which Japan enjoys a global reputation includes delicious food, cutting-edge technology, an oversupply of [...]

As Mexico ages, public services are not keeping up IN A SUNLIT room in Mexico City a group of old people sit round a whiteboard. Some are asleep; others are [...]

China has gone from a one-child to a three-child policy in less than six years FOR A GENERATION, China's government had ordained that 'one child is enough' for married couples. [...]

China is still the world's biggest country--for now R ARELY DOES a census attract attention and controversy--unless the country counting its people is both the world's largest and on the [...]

A shrinking global population could slow technological progress BUBONIC PLAGUE killed between one and two thirds of Europeans when it struck in the 14th century. Covid-19, mercifully, has exacted nothing [...]

Child-safety laws may have surprising unintended consequences IN THE EARLY 1970s American women gave birth, on average, to 2.12 children each. By 2018 that figure had fallen to 1.73. Many [...]

The pandemic may be leading to fewer babies in rich countries, and perhaps more in poor ones WHEN KAMPALA went into covid-19 lockdown, singletons in the Ugandan capital were looking [...]

SOUTH EASTERN EUROPE is in a Catch-22. The region's many problems prompt young, talented people to leave in droves. But it will not catch up with the rest of Europe [...]

AS PEOPLE around the world distance themselves from one another to slow the spread of covid-19, many couples under lockdown find themselves closer than ever. The opportunity has not been [...]

A baby boom grows up, causing difficulties for stretched public services 'THE OH, OH, Ohhh-lympics!' ran one tabloid headline. 'As record 150,000 condoms are handed out to a host of [...]

France's fertility rate is high, but starting to slide THE French city of Rennes serves plates of asparagus tips to 18-month-old tots. Toulouse treats its under-fives to Roquefort-cheese tart. Toddlers [...]

The proportion of births outside marriage has at last stopped rising THE ever-rising proportion of births outside wedlock is one of the great social trends in postwar England and Wales. [...]

There's still room for another Iran's leaders are worried about their country's declining population 'DECIDE tonight to rid yourselves of this ominous culture of having only one or two children,' [...]

A new census raises questions about the future of China's one-child policy DOES China have enough people? The question might seem absurd. The country has long been famous both for [...]

So long. Mum and Dad are off to the pub A baby bust may be the best time to buy firms that sell kids' stuff PRIVATE-EQUITY barons don't usually go [...]

Reports of Europe's death are somewhat exaggerated EUROPEAN countries are buffeted by two global forces: atmospheric pressures that, as it were, change the weather, silently transforming societies and the assumptions [...]