'Spermageddon', housing, a romance famine: Why people are having fewer babies

Author Camilla Cavendish explains the many reasons people are having fewer children, from dating apps to unaffordable housing and the climate crisis

“The wave of childlessness that is sweeping the globe is extraordinary,” says author Camilla Cavendish

Generation Maybe is a tactful title for Camilla Cavendish’s bracing new book, because the demographic trend she is describing is anything but a ‘maybe’.

“The wave of childlessness that is sweeping the globe is extraordinary,” she writes. In Ireland, the fertility rate is 1.5 children per woman, while the 2025 UK figure of 1.39 is the lowest on record. These rates are mirrored across much of the globe. In terms of population decline, “only the Black Death in the 14th century is comparable to what is happening now”.