- Feb 5, 2002
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(OSV News) — For plummeting worldwide fertility rates to change course, people must find courage to “do the hard thing” of raising large families, and that courage comes from faith, said Catherine Ruth Pakaluk, an economist at The Catholic University of America in Washington.
“We live in a society that it’s just so easy not to have children,” said Pakaluk, author of “Hannah’s Children: The Women Quietly Defying the Birth Dearth,” published March 19 by Regnery Gateway. Her research — based on open conversations with college-educated women who have five or more children — indicates that religious faith is a major motivator for having children. She said this shows an importance to change people’s hearts about the value of children — something Christians have historically done as they converted pagan cultures.
Pakaluk’s book coincides with a recently published report by the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington in Seattle showing nearly all countries worldwide will fall below replacement fertility levels within the next 75 years.
By 2100, the fertility rate in 97% of countries is forecasted at below replacement levels, with more 155 of 204 countries and territories (76%) projected to hit that mark by 2050. Fertility rates in the United States have generally been below replacement level since about 1971.
The total fertility rate — a population’s average number of children born to a woman over a lifetime — has fallen globally from 4.84 in 1950 to 2.23 in 2021. About 54% of countries are already below 2.1, the generally accepted replacement level, with no projected rebound, according to the IHME report.
Continued below.
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“We live in a society that it’s just so easy not to have children,” said Pakaluk, author of “Hannah’s Children: The Women Quietly Defying the Birth Dearth,” published March 19 by Regnery Gateway. Her research — based on open conversations with college-educated women who have five or more children — indicates that religious faith is a major motivator for having children. She said this shows an importance to change people’s hearts about the value of children — something Christians have historically done as they converted pagan cultures.
Pakaluk’s book coincides with a recently published report by the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington in Seattle showing nearly all countries worldwide will fall below replacement fertility levels within the next 75 years.
By 2100, the fertility rate in 97% of countries is forecasted at below replacement levels, with more 155 of 204 countries and territories (76%) projected to hit that mark by 2050. Fertility rates in the United States have generally been below replacement level since about 1971.
The total fertility rate — a population’s average number of children born to a woman over a lifetime — has fallen globally from 4.84 in 1950 to 2.23 in 2021. About 54% of countries are already below 2.1, the generally accepted replacement level, with no projected rebound, according to the IHME report.
Continued below.
Changing hearts about freefalling fertility rates around the world
"We live in a society that it's just so easy not to have children," said Pakaluk, author of "Hannah's Children: The Women Quietly Defying the Birth Dearth," published March 19 by Regnery Gateway. Her research -- based on open conversations with college-educated women who have five or more...
www.oursundayvisitor.com
