Demographics

Visualizing the World’s Plummeting Fertility Rate

Published

1 year ago

April 10, 2023

Pallavi Rao

Graphics/Design:

Bhabna Banerjee

A line chart tracing the world's falling fertility rates to 2.3 in 2020 along with a heatmap of countries with higher (darker) or lower (lighter) fertility rates

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Visualizing the World’s Plummeting Fertility Rate

At the dawn of the 19th century, the world population hit a big milestone: 1 billion people.

Over the next 220 years, the number grew to eight times that, or the 8 billion people who live on the planet today, with half of the growth occurring since 1975.

This continuous climb in global population has been possible thanks to advancements in healthcare and nutrition. However, the UN forecasts that rapid growth will slow down—and may even stop entirely by 2100—because of falling fertility rates.

What does that mean for modern nation states conditioned to expect a constant influx of new citizens and labor to power their economies? And how can those changing economies adapt to a shrinking population?

To understand that, we need to first untangle fertility rates, and why they’re falling.

Explained: Fertility and Replacement Rates

The total fertility rate is the average number of births per woman over a lifetime. This measurement makes two key assumptions, however:

The woman will live to the end of her childbearing years
The woman will bear children according to the age-specific fertility rates currently observed

Both assumptions add some uncertainty to future fertility rate projections. However, decades of past data collected by the World Bank help show some overall trends around the world, and in many countries.

ℹ️ The age-specific fertility rate (ASFR) “measures the annual number of births to women of a specified age or age group per 1,000 women in that age group,” according to the UN.

The world fertility rate (expressed as the number of children per woman) has been falling steadily since the 1970s.

In 2020, the world’s fertility rate stood at 2.3, slightly above the replacement rate of 2.1 births per woman, which allows for one generation to replace itself. This is down more than two times from 4.7 in 1960.

But the world’s average hides the vast disparities between the fertility rate of countries. We dive into the differences below.

Which Country has the Highest Fertility Rate?

According to the UN, nearly two-thirds of the world’s population lives in a region where the fertility rate is below the critical 2.1 threshold. In the table below, countries are ranked from the highest to lowest average births per woman in 2020.

Rank	Country Name	1960	1975	1990	2005	2020
1	Niger	7.53	7.54	7.81	7.62	6.89
2	Somalia	7.25	7.03	7.44	7.48	6.42
3	Chad	6.25	6.88	7.22	7.13	6.35
4	Dem. Rep. of Congo	6.08	6.42	6.70	6.60	6.21
5	Mali	7.00	7.24	7.25	6.72	6.04
6	Central African Republic	5.81	5.89	6.05	5.85	5.99
7	Angola	6.71	7.49	7.27	6.46	5.37
8	Nigeria	6.36	6.77	6.46	6.07	5.31
9	Burundi	7.00	7.24	7.37	6.71	5.18
10	Benin	6.28	6.85	6.73	5.68	5.05
11	Burkina Faso	6.25	6.91	7.01	6.18	4.87
12	Tanzania	6.73	7.00	6.20	5.61	4.80
13	Gambia	6.25	6.41	6.22	5.72	4.78
14	Afghanistan	7.28	7.54	7.57	6.91	4.75
15	Mozambique	6.32	6.69	6.22	5.61	4.71
16	Uganda	6.94	7.23	7.04	6.57	4.69
17	Cameroon	5.65	6.39	6.39	5.41	4.54
18	South Sudan	6.72	6.92	7.99	6.17	4.54
19	Sudan	6.65	6.93	6.17	5.04	4.54
20	Guinea	6.11	6.37	6.63	5.70	4.49
21	Cote d'Ivoire	7.69	7.91	6.73	5.46	4.47
22	Mauritania	6.35	6.68	6.06	5.19	4.46
23	Senegal	7.00	7.25	6.40	5.19	4.45
24	Zambia	7.12	7.39	6.53	5.71	4.38
25	Equatorial Guinea	5.65	5.79	5.99	5.56	4.35
26	Togo	6.72	7.15	6.13	5.07	4.32
27	Ethiopia	6.88	7.14	7.24	5.97	4.24
28	Rep. of Congo	6.09	6.36	5.21	4.66	4.23
29	Liberia	6.39	6.74	6.37	5.52	4.17
30	Guinea-Bissau	5.92	6.15	6.51	5.45	4.09
31	Sierra Leone	6.18	6.55	6.57	5.81	4.08
32	Comoros	6.79	7.12	6.50	5.03	4.05
33	Solomon Islands	6.97	7.07	5.66	4.48	4.04
34	Samoa	7.65	6.68	4.93	4.37	4.00
35	Malawi	7.03	7.40	6.81	5.91	4.00
36	Eritrea	6.48	6.59	6.34	4.93	3.93
37	Madagascar	7.30	7.10	6.16	5.10	3.92
38	Sao Tome & Principe	6.24	6.53	5.83	4.96	3.89
39	Yemen	7.94	8.40	8.61	5.58	3.89
40	Rwanda	8.19	8.22	6.87	5.44	3.87
41	Vanuatu	6.86	6.09	5.03	4.16	3.78
42	Ghana	6.85	6.77	5.71	4.54	3.62
43	West Bank & Gaza	NA	NA	6.78	4.84	3.57
44	Pakistan	6.80	6.81	6.36	4.64	3.56
45	Iraq	5.30	6.88	5.88	4.48	3.55
46	Gabon	4.42	5.39	5.46	4.21	3.55
47	Zimbabwe	7.22	6.98	4.87	3.67	3.55
48	Kenya	7.63	7.88	6.13	4.78	3.40
49	Namibia	6.21	6.54	5.32	3.56	3.35
50	Kiribati	6.55	5.03	4.64	3.80	3.33
51	Papua New Guinea	6.02	6.07	5.18	4.22	3.27
52	Tonga	6.89	5.43	4.64	4.18	3.27
53	Timor-Leste	6.32	5.19	5.81	5.71	3.25
54	Tajikistan	6.55	6.60	5.34	3.44	3.24
55	Tuvalu	4.78	3.50	3.91	3.63	3.19
56	Kazakhstan	4.53	3.39	2.72	2.22	3.13
57	Lesotho	5.82	5.90	4.76	3.44	3.05
58	Kyrgyzstan	5.38	4.66	3.63	2.50	3.00
59	Egypt	6.79	5.80	4.48	3.15	2.96
60	Algeria	7.50	7.37	4.56	2.56	2.94
61	Israel	3.87	3.55	2.82	2.84	2.90
62	Mongolia	6.83	7.13	4.23	2.03	2.90
63	Uzbekistan	6.61	5.89	4.07	2.36	2.90
64	Eswatini	6.75	6.75	5.25	3.68	2.89
65	Jordan	7.67	7.89	5.48	3.78	2.87
66	Haiti	6.21	5.69	5.48	3.83	2.87
67	Djibouti	6.83	6.77	5.98	3.99	2.85
68	Botswana	6.63	6.58	4.49	3.08	2.84
69	Syria	7.49	7.47	5.38	3.81	2.80
70	Philippines	7.15	5.60	4.35	3.49	2.78
71	Micronesia	6.69	6.68	4.96	3.60	2.75
72	Turkmenistan	6.59	5.90	4.24	2.66	2.70
73	Oman	7.25	7.75	6.61	3.05	2.69
74	Bolivia	6.36	5.79	4.89	3.56	2.65
75	Guam	5.91	3.91	3.05	2.76	2.59
76	Lao	6.29	6.29	6.08	3.67	2.54
77	Libya	7.37	7.96	4.97	2.77	2.51
78	Paraguay	6.50	5.21	4.55	3.04	2.50
79	Fiji	6.46	4.10	3.41	2.89	2.50
80	Guatemala	6.96	6.41	5.48	3.97	2.48
81	Saudi Arabia	7.63	7.37	5.83	3.24	2.47
82	Guyana	6.37	4.50	3.07	2.84	2.42
83	South Africa	6.16	5.19	3.72	2.51	2.40
84	Honduras	7.46	6.86	5.29	3.55	2.39
85	Cambodia	6.25	4.10	5.64	3.24	2.38
86	Suriname	6.61	4.73	3.27	2.75	2.37
87	Morocco	7.04	6.27	4.02	2.57	2.35
88	Nicaragua	7.16	6.50	4.60	2.77	2.35
89	Panama	5.84	4.42	3.10	2.67	2.34
90	Dominican Republic	7.56	5.24	3.41	2.61	2.30
91	Faroe Islands	NA	2.90	2.80	2.60	2.30
92	World	4.70	4.08	3.31	2.60	2.30
93	Seychelles	NA	NA	NA	2.20	2.29
94	Venezuela, RB	6.36	4.69	3.45	2.63	2.23
95	Peru	6.94	5.71	3.91	2.69	2.22
96	Indonesia	5.55	5.04	3.10	2.43	2.19
97	Myanmar	5.98	5.29	3.54	2.55	2.17
98	Kuwait	7.16	6.09	3.32	2.66	2.14
99	Tunisia	6.94	6.03	3.47	1.98	2.11
100	Lebanon	5.82	4.56	3.30	2.20	2.10
101	Nepal	6.03	5.75	5.21	3.14	2.06
102	Ecuador	6.72	5.43	3.74	2.80	2.05
103	India	5.92	5.20	4.05	2.96	2.05
104	New Caledonia	6.28	3.70	3.18	2.20	2.04
105	Virgin Islands	5.45	3.63	2.99	2.24	2.03
106	Grenada	6.74	4.02	3.49	2.34	2.02
107	Greenland	NA	2.35	2.44	2.38	2.02
108	Bangladesh	6.78	6.74	4.48	2.81	2.00
109	Sri Lanka	5.47	3.79	2.52	2.28	2.00
110	Belize	6.50	6.28	4.70	3.13	2.00
111	Georgia	2.94	2.53	2.31	1.61	1.97
112	Vietnam	6.28	5.64	3.60	1.96	1.96
113	Turkiye	6.38	5.07	3.13	2.22	1.92
114	Argentina	3.08	3.30	3.03	2.43	1.91
115	Cabo Verde	6.89	6.77	5.39	2.93	1.91
116	Mexico	6.76	5.79	3.45	2.50	1.91
117	Gibraltar	3.01	2.62	2.44	1.70	1.86
118	Bahrain	7.15	5.62	3.76	2.62	1.83
119	France	2.85	2.09	1.77	1.94	1.83
120	El Salvador	6.63	5.68	3.95	2.46	1.82
121	Malaysia	6.41	4.52	3.37	2.33	1.82
122	North Korea	3.57	3.05	2.35	1.96	1.82
123	Qatar	6.65	6.10	4.18	2.58	1.82
124	St. Vincent & the Grenadines	7.29	4.98	2.83	2.07	1.81
125	Brunei Darussalam	6.84	4.99	3.29	2.02	1.80
126	Moldova	3.33	2.53	2.39	1.53	1.77
127	Montenegro	3.50	2.40	1.94	1.69	1.75
128	Colombia	6.74	4.40	3.08	2.26	1.74
129	Iceland	4.29	2.65	2.30	2.05	1.72
130	Maldives	6.80	7.19	6.09	2.24	1.71
131	Czechia	2.09	2.43	1.90	1.29	1.71
132	Iran	7.30	6.01	4.86	1.78	1.71
133	French Polynesia	5.89	4.71	3.44	2.19	1.71
134	Azerbaijan	5.88	4.18	2.74	2.00	1.70
135	Denmark	2.57	1.92	1.67	1.80	1.67
136	Sweden	2.17	1.77	2.13	1.77	1.66
137	Brazil	6.06	4.42	2.91	1.97	1.65
138	U.S.	3.65	1.77	2.08	2.06	1.64
139	Trinidad and Tobago	5.35	3.24	2.38	1.68	1.63
140	Ireland	3.78	3.37	2.11	1.86	1.63
141	Barbados	4.33	2.39	1.74	1.79	1.63
142	New Zealand	4.24	2.33	2.18	1.97	1.61
143	Curacao	NA	NA	NA	NA	1.60
144	Romania	2.34	2.59	1.83	1.40	1.60
145	Slovenia	2.19	2.18	1.46	1.26	1.60
146	Australia	3.45	2.15	1.90	1.81	1.58
147	Estonia	1.98	2.04	2.05	1.52	1.58
148	Armenia	4.79	2.96	2.71	1.54	1.58
149	Slovak Republic	3.04	2.55	2.09	1.27	1.57
150	Antigua and Barbuda	4.60	2.77	2.25	1.83	1.57
151	Isle of Man	2.88	2.05	1.92	1.85	1.57
152	Bulgaria	2.31	2.23	1.82	1.37	1.56
153	United Kingdom	2.69	1.81	1.83	1.76	1.56
154	Hungary	2.02	2.35	1.87	1.31	1.56
155	Costa Rica	6.71	3.80	3.21	2.04	1.56
156	Belgium	2.54	1.74	1.62	1.76	1.55
157	Latvia	1.94	1.96	2.02	1.39	1.55
158	Netherlands	3.12	1.66	1.62	1.71	1.55
159	Chile	4.70	3.18	2.58	1.80	1.54
160	Germany	2.37	1.45	1.45	1.34	1.53
161	Kosovo	6.36	5.25	3.65	2.61	1.53
162	Russia	2.52	1.98	1.89	1.29	1.51
163	Cuba	4.13	2.85	1.80	1.47	1.50
164	Croatia	2.23	1.96	1.63	1.50	1.48
165	Lithuania	2.56	2.18	2.03	1.29	1.48
166	Norway	2.85	1.98	1.93	1.84	1.48
167	Serbia	NA	NA	NA	1.45	1.48
168	Uruguay	2.83	3.02	2.43	2.10	1.48
169	U.A.E	6.72	6.26	4.54	2.20	1.46
170	Switzerland	2.44	1.61	1.58	1.42	1.46
171	Austria	2.69	1.83	1.46	1.41	1.44
172	Mauritius	6.17	3.20	2.32	1.88	1.44
173	Bhutan	6.70	6.62	5.60	2.80	1.43
174	St. Lucia	6.97	5.46	3.40	1.68	1.41
175	Albania	6.46	4.52	2.90	1.80	1.40
176	Canada	3.81	1.82	1.83	1.57	1.40
177	Portugal	3.16	2.75	1.56	1.41	1.40
178	Bahamas	4.82	3.26	2.53	2.05	1.39
179	Belarus	2.67	2.17	1.91	1.25	1.38
180	Poland	2.98	2.27	2.06	1.24	1.38
181	Finland	2.72	1.68	1.78	1.80	1.37
182	Luxembourg	2.29	1.55	1.60	1.63	1.37
183	Bosnia & Herzegovina	3.91	2.36	1.79	1.20	1.36
184	Jamaica	5.58	4.50	2.85	2.06	1.36
185	Thailand	6.25	4.40	2.09	1.59	1.34
186	Greece	2.23	2.33	1.39	1.34	1.34
187	Japan	2.00	1.91	1.54	1.26	1.34
188	Cyprus	3.51	2.11	2.41	1.48	1.33
189	Aruba	4.82	2.51	2.30	1.78	1.33
190	Bermuda	NA	NA	NA	1.76	1.30
191	North Macedonia	3.97	2.59	2.19	1.50	1.30
192	China	4.45	3.57	2.51	1.62	1.28
193	Italy	2.40	2.17	1.33	1.34	1.24
194	Spain	2.86	2.77	1.36	1.33	1.23
195	Ukraine	2.24	2.02	1.85	1.21	1.22
196	Malta	3.62	2.27	2.02	1.38	1.13
197	Singapore	5.76	2.07	1.83	1.26	1.10
198	Macao SAR, China	4.93	1.60	1.74	0.83	1.07
199	British Virgin Islands	5.16	3.36	1.59	1.34	0.98
200	Puerto Rico	4.80	2.77	2.38	1.77	0.90
201	Hong Kong	5.07	2.67	1.27	0.96	0.87
202	South Korea	5.95	3.43	1.57	1.09	0.84

The African country of Niger currently has the highest fertility rate, at 6.9, which means on average, a woman in Niger will have seven children in her lifetime.

With the exception of Afghanistan (14th), all of the top 30 countries are found on the African continent. In fact, it’s estimated that Africa will add 2.5 billion new people by 2100, while most continents will actually flatline in terms of population growth.

At the bottom of the rankings, the country with the lowest fertility rate is South Korea, at 0.84.

Interestingly, many of the current most populous countries of the world—including China, India, and the U.S.—are all below replacement levels of fertility, with parts of Europe and North America having had persistently low fertility levels since the 1970s.

However, even the countries that currently have high fertility rates have seen a steep decline over the last 60 years. Why?

Why are Fertility Rates Falling All Over The World?

Declining fertility rates are a consequence of a confluence of many related factors, including (but not limited to):

Better access to contraception
Improving opportunities for women, outside of childbearing
Robust healthcare that lowers mortality rates of children

In the past, a larger number of children meant more chances of some making it to adulthood since infant mortality was so high. Women were also restricted to childbearing and rearing, and lacked access to contraception which led to increased—and sometimes unwanted—pregnancies.

Declining fertility rates are thus a triumph of improved socioeconomic development for many countries.

Consequences of Declining Fertility Rates

Although there are obvious issues with our large global population today, a different set of issues arise when fertility rates fall below replacement levels.

Dropping fertility rates can lead to shrinking populations and a higher ratio of the elderly to working adults—which will have unwanted economic consequences like increased healthcare costs and a reduced tax base.

Short-term solutions like immigration can help until populations are shrinking in every country. Longer-term solutions—reducing the cost of raising a child, and providing better support for families with children—are common strategies deployed to ward off demographic disaster.

The current crop of humanity has never had to contend with shrinking populations on a global scale. How will this reshape human livelihoods, priorities and expectations from life? We might soon find out.

Source: The World Bank.

Data note: The World Bank uses a number of sources to aggregate their data including the UN population division, Eurostat, and several national statistics programs. Data for some years is missing and has been marked as “NA.” Please visit their website for more information.

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Demographics

Ranked: Countries Where Youth are the Most Unhappy, Relative to Older Generations

Conventional wisdom says that young adults (those below 30) tend to be the happiest demographic—but this is not true for these countries.

Published

58 mins ago

May 17, 2024

Pallavi Rao

Countries with the Biggest Happiness Gaps Between Generations

This was originally posted on our Voronoi app. Download the app for free on iOS or Android and discover incredible data-driven charts from a variety of trusted sources.

“They say a person needs just three things to be truly happy in this world: someone to love, something to do, and something to hope for.” — Tom Bodett

Measuring happiness is tricky business, more so when taking into account how different regions, cultures, and faiths define it. Nevertheless, the World Happiness Report attempts to distill being happy into a single score out of 10, and then ranks countries by their average score.

We’ve visualized the high-level findings from the latest happiness report in this series of maps. However, the report also dives deeper into other significant trends in the data, such as a growing disparity in happiness between age groups within countries themselves.

In the chart above, we list countries by the biggest gaps in happiness ranks between young adults (<30) and older adults (60+). A higher number indicates a larger gap, and that the youth are far unhappier than their older counterparts.

Where are Youth Unhappier than Older Adults?

Mauritius ranks first on this list, with a massive 57 place gap between older adult and youth happiness. The 1.26 million-inhabited island nation briefly reached high income status in 2020, but the pandemic hit hard, hurting its key tourism sector, and affecting jobs.

The country’s youth unemployment rate spiked to close to 25% that year, but has since been on the decline. Like residents on many similarly-populated islands, the younger demographic often moves abroad in search of more opportunities.

Rank	Country	Youth Happiness Rank	Older Adult Happiness Rank	Happiness Gap
1	🇲🇺 Mauritius	85	28	57
2	🇺🇸 U.S.	62	10	52
3	🇨🇦 Canada	58	8	50
4	🇺🇿 Uzbekistan	71	22	49
5	🇨🇳 China	79	30	49
6	🇯🇵 Japan	73	36	37
7	🇲🇳 Mongolia	86	53	33
8	🇩🇿 Algeria	93	62	31
9	🇱🇾 Libya	80	50	30
10	🇸🇬 Singapore	54	26	28
11	🇰🇿 Kazakhstan	69	42	27
12	🇵🇭 Philippines	70	43	27
13	🇱🇦 Laos	104	77	27
14	🇩🇪 Germany	47	21	26
15	🇪🇸 Spain	55	29	26
16	🇲🇹 Malta	57	31	26
17	🇧🇭 Bahrain	77	51	26
18	🇰🇬 Kyrgyzstan	81	55	26
19	🇲🇷 Mauritania	119	93	26
20	🇹🇩 Chad	120	94	26

Conventional wisdom says, and data somewhat correlates, that young adults (those below 30) tend to be the happiest demographic. Happiness then decreases through middle age and starts increasing around 60. However, the above countries are digressing from the pattern, with older generations being much happier than young adults.

That older generations are happier, by itself, is not a bad thing. However, that younger adults are so much unhappier in the same country can point to several unique stresses that those aged below 30 are facing.

For example, in the U.S. and Canada—both near the top of this list—many young adults feel like they have been priced out of owning a home: a once key metric of success.

Climate anxieties are also high, with worries about the future of the world they’ll inhabit. Finally, persistent economic inequities are also weighing on the younger generation, with many in that cohort feeling like they will never be able to afford to retire.

All of this comes alongside a rising loneliness epidemic, where those aged 18–25 report much higher rates of loneliness than the general population.

Where does this data come from?

Source: The World Happiness Report which leverages data from the Gallup World Poll.

Methodology: A nationally representative group of approximately 1,000 people per country are asked to evaluate their life on a scale of 0–10. Scores are averaged across generations per country over three years. Countries are ranked by their scores out of 10.