Fertility rates have hit an all-time low. But why are you shocked?

Sometimes, you do just have to laugh. There are very few things that all the main political parties in Britain agree on. Hell, there probably only is one: even topics like the war in Ukraine or the question of “is racism bad?” have got needlessly complicated over the past few years. You just can’t count on everyone being broadly decent anymore. Still, there is one issue on which all our leaders can stand as one: the country needs more babies.

For the left, it’s a human rights issue: people should be able to breed if they want to, without fearing destitution or catastrophe. For the right… eh. Let’s not dwell on that one for too long, as some of the undercurrents there are less than pleasant. Let’s just say many on that side believe that some people ought to have more children. In any case, the consensus seems to be that, from workplaces to pensions, the UK could do with more kids.

Isn’t it amazing, then, that fertility rates were found to have hit a record low only this week? According to data from the Office for National Statistics, the rate in England and Wales fell for the third year in a row in 2024, and now stands at 1.41 – the lowest since figures started being collected in 1938. Over in Scotland, things are somehow even more dire.

Official data published over the border earlier this month showed that the fertility rate had fallen to 1.25, the lowest since records began in 1855. Overall, the area doing best in the country was Luton, with a rate of 2, still just about under the threshold of 2.1, the point at which a population remains stable from one generation to the next.

Isn’t it incredible? The left, the right and the centre all believe women should have more babies, and yet nothing is shifting. In fact, things are quite actively getting worse. What’s going on?

For a start, it would seem worth arguing that, sometimes, there can be a deep chasm between what people say they care about and what they actually do about those things. Politicians are no exception.

Of course, it’s easy to say that Brits should have more kids, but has the two-child benefit cap been lifted? No, it has not.

Has ample, expansive paternity leave become a statutory duty? Nope. Are self-employed people able to get even a crumb of what their salaried counterparts receive when on maternity leave? Think again! Oh, and let’s not even get into the trials of getting IVF on the NHS.

Suggested Reading

For the self-employed, parenting feels impossible

Marie Le Conte

To quote that famous Simpsons line, “we’ve tried nothing and we’re all out of ideas”. It also goes without saying that successive governments haven’t exactly been great at solving the policy problems which, while not directly related to childbirth and parenting, still have a downstream effect on them.

People are less likely to have several children if they can’t afford to move to a place with an extra bedroom, for example. Are we building enough houses, in order to address this? You bet we’re not.

In short, it’s easy to worry and complain and point at a problem, but quite a bit harder to actually attempt to solve it. Both the Conservatives and Labour have been trying to make childcare more extensive and cheaper, it’s true, but talk to any parents of young children and you will find that’s only scratching the surface. Attempting to change the direction in which the population is going on such an existential issue cannot be done by simply tinkering around the edges.

As a result, big-picture thinking could and should be welcome. Oh, are birth rates falling across the world? Well, has anyone tried to actually have a fully equal and truly feminist society? Is there a country in the world which has managed to do away with the patriarchy entirely? No? Well in that case, we simply have to keep trying, and think bigger and bigger.

Oh, and if after all this, nothing changes? That should also be fine.

Governments in Britain and elsewhere need to make their peace with the idea that women are people, and some of them just may not want to have that other kid, or any kids at all. That ought to be respected, and seen as the mark of a truly civilised society – nothing more, nothing less.