Gravitas Plus: The world's fertility rate is falling. Here's why

They call it selfish to not have kids, I call it selfish to have kids when you can't even afford to take care of yourself.

Problem is that the wrong people are having too many children.

"Population may become half by 2100" I see this as an absolute win.

Dont give a damn about people calling you selfish if you dont have kids. They are not the ones who will be taking care of your kids.

Its because people are learning that having a kid is a choice not a requirement.

“Rich words coming from a non-parent” - Give this woman a raise 🙌🏻🙌🏻🙌🏻

Some people were so traumatized in childhood they had no desire to bring anyone into this world lest they experience the same thing. That's not selfish.

It’s kind of ironic.. a lot of people are having kids just because everyone else is, a lot of them are emotionally unavailable/unstable, financially unstable, not really thinking about the child’s upbringing have more than one kid.. and the people who are responsible and care deeply about the impact of having a child or what the child might have to suffer, have one or no kids at all…

We can't blame the people for not having kids. Imagine spending 21 - 24 years of life in education, who wants to commit themselves to another stressful act of maintaining a family?

If you are choosing not to have children you are NOT “childless”- you are “child free”. There’s a big difference.

When my dad died I became the breadwinner to help my mom raise my siblings, so most of my salary went to them. My youngest sibling graduated when I was 27 and by that time I was physically and mentally exhausted taking care of the family. I need a break and I'm not ready to have kids right now. I just want to spend the next few years fee from responsiblity and just enjoy life for once.

Having kids: More mouths to feed More food to buy More working hours No maternity/paternity leave Little to no personal time. Can’t be with the kids? Get caregiver which is expensive. Wages doesn’t increase Houses are expensive Inflation is high Everything is expensive It’s not selfish, it’s smart. Get immigrants to fill in the gap. No Not having kids: Healthy and comfortable living.

The issue is finding a good partner. You can't take a risk to have a fatherless child or worse having a toxic father/mother, causing psychological torture to the child.

I am a parent with 2 boys who are teenagers . I simply wasn’t ready for being a parent. It was very very stressful and emotionally drained my energy . I appreciate people who consciously decide whether to be parents or not . I love my kids crazy but they also stress me to the core . It is a life long commitment. If you are not ready please don’t bring another life .

Respectfully, it's called Childfree not childless.

Spot on conclusion. If a nation really wants more children produced, support the parents with policies and finances that make it a logical choice. Don't expect people to keep doing crazy things out of tradition.

We can't afford to have kids, and the world is so messed up we almost feel guilty for bringing more people into it :(

It's not only giving birth to a child, it's about giving the child the financial and emotional support which many like me are not capable of! I am not going to ruin a child's mental and emotional state because of some societal pressure. It's a true fact, not everyone is emotionally available or ready to be a mother! Don't shame them for that. P.S. it's the same for men too!

My parents were not ready for children, as a result my brother and I suffer for it, even though we are adults now, it leaves scars for life.

After facing India's situation of job crisis as a youngster myself I hope population of youngsters in India should decrease so that every person in future atleast get employed, if government don't care about employment of all youngsters then we youngsters too don't care about fertility rate and having enough youngsters in future or anything like that. It's better to have less youngster population than required than having more than enough, I can't see my children struggling like me and being depressed by competition in literally every field