"Yet perhaps it's time we ask not only why aren't women having babies?, but also why aren't men? Men are largely invisible in the birthrate debate. It's ironic that amid all the pontificating and the policy ideas for encouraging more women to have babies a conversation often being had by men the other half of humanity is strikingly underexamined. Part of the problem is an absence of data: like many European countries, we don't really have any on male fertility."
"So what do we know? Well, we know what is driving the birthrate crisis is not really people having fewer children, but far fewer people becoming parents at all. As the demographer Stephen J Shaw recently wrote, childlessness is on the rise despite the fact that most people still say that they want children. He highlighted how unplanned childlessness or involuntary infertility could often be down to simply not being able to find the right partner."
Fertility rates in England, Scotland and Wales have fallen to record lows. Common explanations include childcare and housing costs and the motherhood career penalty, alongside misleading stereotypes about individual awareness of fertility. Men receive little attention in analyses of the birthrate decline. Reliable data on male fertility are largely absent. The core driver is fewer people becoming parents, not substantially lower completed fertility per parent. Childlessness is rising even though most people express a desire for children. A growing share of involuntary childlessness stems from inability to find suitable partners amid a relationship recession. Male partner availability and age-matching now critically shape parental prospects.
Read at www.theguardian.com
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