Wanted
Unwanted pregnancies are bad. But so is the unfulfilled desire for children—and that problem is growing
FAMILY planning has been a huge success. The global fertility rate has crashed, from 5.1 babies per woman in 1964 to 2.5 today. The average Bangladeshi woman can now expect to have about the same number of children as the average Frenchwoman. Only in sub-Saharan Africa are big families still in vogue, and even there they are shrinking. This is welcome. It suggests that women have gained more control over their bodies and that parents no longer reproduce frantically for fear that some of their children will die. Cutting the birth rate also leaves countries with fewer dependants per worker, at least for a time, making them better off.
This article appeared in the Leaders section of the print edition under the headline “Wanted”
From the August 27th 2016 edition
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