The Ramadan observance surveys were only conducted among the people who self identified as Muslim, thus excluding non-Muslim populations (conducted in 2022,2024,2025)

China have the most messed up government policies in history. Introduced in 1979, it was designed to control population growth, but it caused a hell of a lot of suffering for many families. Imagine being told by your own government that you could only have one child. For parents who dreamed of having a big, happy family, this rule was a heartbreaking nightmare.

One of the worst things about this policy was how it affected parents and children. Some families faced huge fines, forced abortions, and forced sterilizations for breaking the rules. That is some seriously cruel shit. Families were put under pressure to follow the government's demands instead of making their own decisions about their lives. Even worse, the preference for boys in some families contributed to sex-selective abortions and the abandonment of baby girls. This created a serious gender imbalance and left many people struggling with loneliness and unfair treatment.

Compared with China, families in the United States generally have much more freedom to decide how many children they want. Some American families have three, four, five, or even more children running around the house. Sure, having a huge family can be expensive and stressful as hell, but parents can usually make that choice without the government telling them they have broken a population rule. A house full of siblings might be loud, chaotic, and sometimes a total pain in the ass, but it can also be full of love, laughter, and support.

The biggest difference is freedom. American families generally have the freedom to choose between having one child or a whole damn football team of kids. China's one-child policy took away much of that freedom and caused suffering that lasted for generations. Although the policy officially ended in 2016, its effects did not disappear overnight.

In conclusion, China's one-child policy shows how badly things can go when a government controls something as personal as family life. No family should have to suffer because of rules that take away their basic choices and happiness.

(Spanish)

I'm just saying.

From the replies alone you can see that these are just horrible people. Claiming that women who have children don’t “think”. Yet I bet 30 years down the line when they retire they will be so glad that they can because of the workforce being born today. It’s genuinely infuriating how they have a self righteousness that having children is selfish when in the long run it’s quite the opposite.

Personal example: my mother's dad had 7 siblings. Between those 7 siblings only 2 had kids, for a total of 3 children among the 7. What happened with the uncles and aunts died off? They had no one to leave their possessions to except my mom and her brother. So they inherited multiple houses which they had no use for and sold them at a combined profit of $2.5 million.

So for example while Korea's TRF is abysmal, is it really that bad for the few kids that are left? They will inherit assets from family who didn't have kids?

As further food for thought 30%-50% of modern/centrist/dati leumi type orthodox jews both in leave as well

Its why as sectors in the American jewish population they've remained a stable percentage of the total jewish population, and why the rate of growth for all orthodox types isn't exponential in israel. (and its slowing as the completed fertility rate for ultra orthodox and dati jewish people is starting to shrink from anecdotal evidence)

I don't ask this question in bad faith, I'm only curious. I am under the impression that we humans don't act altruistically, regardless what we say. There's always self interest in our choices and actions.

This makes me wonder, when natalists express worry about the falling birth rates, and that more people are not procreating, what's your angle?

Are you really just worried about the future of the planet, I mean if you have and raise your own kids, you're covered, old age and all, are you worried about the non-natalists who would be abandoned at old age? Or you're worried the government and the capitalists won't have enough workers and taxpayers?

Maybe this would be a starting point for me to understand why it's so important to procreate. I for one believe the planet is overpopulated as is, we don't have to max out earth's capacity.

I feel some of the problems we have today, unemployment, resource wars, extreme capitalism would be solved in part by a little depopulation, but that's just me.

I don't think artificial wombs will change much by themselves, being able to avoid 9 months of pregnancy is nice, but the thing is you would still have to take care of the child for the next 20 years, with everything that goes with that (opportunity costs, career).

Once artificial wombs become popular, within a generation people kind of forget that there was a time when having a child was painful, and will still be complaining about the difficulties of having children, despite the fact that having children would become easier.

How many people still remember (and deeply think that there was a time when when children suffered from polio or tetanus? These illnesses have vanished from developed countries, and, as a matter of fact, from our collective memory, life got better yet we have less children.

Human nature plays a role, we as humans tend to focus on actual dangers, but for this exact reason perhaps we as a society need an idea, something to believe in, that would justify having children despite the difficulties, because without that, we devolve to a basic instinct of avoiding struggle and danger as much as possible.

More and more people refuse to procreate.

INCLUDING people from poor countries.

The global birth rate is below the replacement level for most countries.

More and more people are saying that life is not worth the struggle.

Are we gradually going extinct?

• September Number of Births: 7,704
  • (-10.45% YoY, -899 newborns)
• September Number of Marriages: 6,490
  • ( +15.6% YoY, +876 couples)
• January–September (YTD) Number of Births:
  • 69,446 (−14.67%, −11,935 YTD)
• January–September (YTD) Number of Marriages (Opposite Sex Couples):
  • 66,336 (-7.69%, -5524 YTD)
• Percentage of Population Aged 65 and Older: 
  • 19.18% (Dec 2024) → 20.03% (Jan 2026) → 20.70% (Sept 2026)

https://www.ris.gov.tw/app/portal/2121?sn=26278263

Israel is unique in being the only developed country that has bucked the decreasing fertility trend. However, the reasons for this may not be replicable elsewhere.

For those who already have children, please vote for what was or is your desired fertility, not your current family size.