Society & Demographics News and Discussions

[wjfox]

[weatheriscool]

[weatheriscool]

[firestar464]

More on that by NPR:

https://www.npr.org/2025/04/17/nx-s1-53 ... f-same-age

"new york post." No further comment needed.

[wjfox]

How modern dog ownership has redefined family and parenting

22 May 2025

Birth rates are declining worldwide, while dog parenting practices are gaining popularity. What does this growing “furry children” trend reveal about our societies? Researchers from Eötvös Loránd University suggest that, while dogs do not actually replace children, they may, in some cases, offer an opportunity to fulfil a nurturing drive similar to parenting, but with fewer demands than raising biological offspring. Their review, published in European Psychologist, also examines how the shifting roles of dogs within modern family structures are influenced by individual circumstances, but also by cultural norms.

Many wealthy and developed countries—including much of Europe, North America, and East Asia—are now experiencing sub-replacement fertility, meaning people are having fewer children than needed to maintain the population over time. In contrast, dog ownership has gained popularity over the last decades. In most European countries, a quarter to half of households own at least one dog, often regarded as a family member or even a furry baby.

https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/1084363

[firestar464]

"What will we do post-work"

>chills with woofers

[weatheriscool]

World fertility rates in 'unprecedented decline', UN says

Namrata Nangia and her husband have been toying with the idea of having another child since their five-year-old daughter was born.

But it always comes back to one question: 'Can we afford it?'

She lives in Mumbai and works in pharmaceuticals, her husband works at a tyre company. But the costs of having one child are already overwhelming - school fees, the school bus, swimming lessons, even going to the GP is expensive.

It was different when Namrata was growing up. "We just used to go to school, nothing extracurricular, but now you have to send your kid to swimming, you have to send them to drawing, you have to see what else they can do."

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/clynq459wxgo

[weatheriscool]

I think the population of this planet could be 5-6 billion by 2100.

[caltrek]

I, for one, do not see this (see above) as a problem. At least in and of itself. In my time, a kind of stone age for the rest of you, it was overpopulation that was the problem. That and massive human die off mostly caused by malnutrition. The green revolution allowed for the rapid development of agriculture to keep up with fast spurts of population growth. In tandem, fertility rates declined. Sometimes with government encouragement, as in China.

Even with mitigating strategies made possible by developing technology, humans still bring a tremendous negative impact to the environment. Exhibit A is global climate change. Humans can and do also bring offsetting positive impacts, but I am focusing on the negative impacts here. These negative impacts often outweigh the positive.

Because of declining birth rates, negative growth rates often operate in tandem with lengthening lifespans. They are also a way for people to better share the wealth in that there are less people to compete with to share that wealth.

There are problems with caring for the elderly. Some of these problems can also be dealt with through the continual development of technology. With the assistance of machines and robots, a relatively small staff can take care of a large number of senior citizens. Alternatively, mechanization (including use of robots) in industry may free up workers who can provide services to seniors. Improved health by said senior citizens also means that they can take care of themselves better. This is especially the case with the help of advancing technology.

A major problem comes with implementing another solution. That other solution being the acceptance of immigrants from lower income countries. In countries that are culturally open to such a solution there is no problem. Of course, in many of these countries, immigrants must accept a second-class status, one that often still leaves them in better shape than if they had not emigrated.

In other countries, such as the United States, there is a fear of immigrants. Do they bring an increased proclivity for criminal behavior? Do they worship God in the same way that "we" do? More generally, do they threaten our cultural inheritance because they may replace it with their own?

To me, these issues of cultural friction are more important than a net decline in population growth. Of course, for reasons just discussed, they may be connected.

[caltrek]

Fears that Falling Birth Rates in U.S. Could Lead to Population Collapse are Based on Faulty Assumptions
By Leslie Root, Karen Benjamin Guzzo, and Shelley Clark
July 25, 2025

Introduction:

(The Conversation) Pronatalism – the belief that low birth rates are a problem that must be reversed – is having a moment in the U.S.
As birth rates decline in the U.S. and throughout the world, voices from Silicon Valley to the White House are raising concerns about what they say could be the calamitous effects of steep population decline on the economy. The Trump administration has said it is seeking ideas on how to encourage Americans to have more children as the U.S. experiences its lowest total fertility rate in history, down about 25% since 2007.

As demographers who study fertility, family behaviors and childbearing intentions, we can say with certainty that population decline is not imminent, inevitable or necessarily catastrophic.

The population collapse narrative hinges on three key misunderstandings. First, it misrepresents what standard fertility measures tell us about childbearing and makes unrealistic assumptions that fertility rates will follow predictable patterns far into the future. Second, it overstates the impact of low birth rates on future population growth and size. Third, it ignores the role of economic policies and labor market shifts in assessing the impacts of low birth rates.

Additional extracts:

Currently, despite fertility below the replacement level of 2.1 children per woman, there are still more births than deaths.

…as older adults stay healthier and more active, a growing number of them are contributing to the economy.
…
As fertility rates have fallen, women’s labor force participation rates have risen dramatically – from 34% in 1950 to 58% in 2024. Pronatalist policies that discourage women’s employment are at odds with concerns about a diminishing number of workers.

Read more here: https://theconversation.com/fears-that ... s-261031

[firestar464]

also robots

[wjfox]

Reading for pleasure in freefall: New study finds 40% drop over two decades

20 Aug 2025

A sweeping new study from the University of Florida and University College London has found that daily reading for pleasure in the United States has declined by more than 40% over the last 20 years — raising urgent questions about the cultural, educational and health consequences of a nation reading less.

Published today in the journal iScience, the study analyzed data from over 236,000 Americans who participated in the American Time Use Survey between 2003 and 2023. The findings suggest a fundamental cultural shift: fewer people are carving out time in their day to read for enjoyment.

“This is not just a small dip — it’s a sustained, steady decline of about 3% per year,” said Jill Sonke, Ph.D., director of research initiatives at the UF Center for Arts in Medicine and co-director of the EpiArts Lab, a National Endowment for the Arts research lab at UF in partnership with University College London. “It’s significant, and it’s deeply concerning.”

The decline wasn’t evenly spread across the population. Researchers found steeper drops among Black Americans than white Americans, people with lower income or educational attainment, and those in rural (versus metropolitan) areas — highlighting deepening disparities in reading access and habits.

“While people with higher education levels and women are still more likely to read, even among these groups, we’re seeing shifts,” said Jessica Bone, Ph.D., senior research fellow in statistics and epidemiology at University College London. “And among those who do read, the time spent reading has increased slightly, which may suggest a polarization, where some people are reading more while many have stopped reading altogether.”

https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/1094631

[weatheriscool]

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[firestar464]

Existing regulations are fine if fair use is applied correctly. The annoying thing is that people seem to have been whipped up into an anti-fair use frenzy over AI

[wjfox]

[wjfox]

[caltrek]

Is Male Infertility Contributing to Falling Birth Rates?
By Joshua Cohen
December 3, 2025

Introduction:

(Undark) FOR DECADES, U.S. marriage rates have been on the decline while the average age at which Americans have children has risen. Alongside this, birth rates have dropped — a phenomenon the Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. has called a “national security threat.” Within Donald Trump’s administration’s Make America Great Again movement, pro-natalists opine that society’s existence could be at stake.

Kennedy issued a warning at a White House press briefing in October, arguing that the fertility rate is not high enough to ensure the American population remains stable. The rate dropped to a historic low in 2023 and continued to slide in 2024. The total fertility rate that year was less than 1.6 live births per woman of childbearing age. This is well below the replacement rate of 2.1, at which population size remains constant from generation to generation.

Many women are proactively choosing to have no or fewer children. But for those who do wish to get pregnant, yet struggle with infertility, President Trump has announced that he will work with a drugmaker to offer several fertility medications at a heavy discount and make it easier for employers to offer fertility benefits.

The administration has not, however, spoken publicly about specific treatments geared toward men. And until recently, the topic of male infertility was somewhat taboo, even though it plays a role in roughly half of all cases in which a woman struggles to get pregnant.

A man’s age, health, and weight can all contribute to infertility. Research suggests this is because these variables influence sperm count and testosterone levels — both of which appear to be on the decline.

Read more here: https://undark.org/2025/12/03/male-inf ... th- rate/

[wjfox]