What Britain’s collapsing birth rate means for grandparents

15 comments

1. **From The Telegraph:**

   The happiest years of an adult’s life do not occur during the formative period spent at university, when someone finds their calling in a career, or even when they become a parent.

   According to official data, Britons reach peak happiness much later in life. Surveys carried out by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) between 2016 and 2018 found respondents were at their happiest between the ages of 65 to 75.

   While reaching retirement is undoubtedly a factor in the sudden boost of happiness, grandchildren are likely another.

   Older people who help care for their grandchildren have been found to experience lower rates of depression and loneliness, including in research by the World Health Organisation.

   However, such joys that were long a near-universal milestone later in life are becoming rarer. This is the inevitable consequence of [Britain’s sustained fall in birth rates.](https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2024/06/20/birth-rates-britain-halve-low-fertility-future/)

   England and Wales’s total fertility rate dropped to 1.44 children per woman in 2023, the lowest on record and significantly lower than the 2.1 children per woman that is considered necessary to maintain a stable population and replace the older generation in developed countries without migration.

   This means that once millennials reach old age, the number of grandchildren they have will be a third lower than 80-year-olds today.

   Some of the baby boomer generation will already recognise this trend first-hand. Growing numbers of young people are increasingly opting out of parenthood, citing living costs, stressful careers and even climate change.

   As families shrink, experts say new dividing lines will emerge within and across generations, impacting personal finances, care in old age and even loneliness.

   Paul Morland, a demographer and senior member at St Antony’s College, University of Oxford, says having younger people to advocate on behalf of relatives is crucial in a society grappling with an overburdened health system.

   “In a world where there are more and more old people and fewer and fewer young people, services for the elderly will break down. Those with children [or grandchildren] to help them navigate the system will do better than those who don’t,” he says.

   “If you don’t have children to put their foot down when you can’t get a doctor’s appointment or to take you to the hospital, it’s going to be pretty grim. You’re going to be at the back of the queue just because of the way these things work.”

2. Governments could maybe do something about it. Maybe make houses a bit more affordable or better services and maternity leave, just a crazy thought, tho….

3. well at least theyre not lumbeered with our buggers as much and save some money every christmas

4. We would have children if we could buy a house for a start.

5. Our today is the consequence of your yesterday. What it means is grandparents have failed to provide many a country they want to have children in.

6. For those who frame this as a cost of living problem (i.e. that only the rich can afford kids), well the global trend over the last 200+ years is the _complete opposite_: as women get wealthier and better educated, the fewer babies they have. There is an inverse relationship between wealth and birth rates.

   Birth rates in 19th century Europe (and in earlier centuries) was _much_ higher yet most women lived in unimaginable levels of poverty and hardship; their economic conditions were infinitely worse. And today in Western European countries the groups who tend to have the largest families are first gen migrants, who are often the poorest and with the worst housing situation.

   It’s a cultural thing, highly educated women in their 20s given the choice tend to delay having babies and focus on their jobs instead. But the 20s are the most fertile period, so delaying makes it very difficult for themselves by starting in their 30s. We have lost all the societal, cultural and religious pressure to have babies and the only groups who now have surplus birth rates are the highly religious and global poor who _for now_ have **not** lost those cultural norms and pressure.

7. Having children nowadays is barely affordable so I can see why people are put off when it comes to having children.

8. Can’t afford kids because POS publications like the Telegraph convinced the country to kick itself in the d**k for 14 years.

9. An upside of the collapsing birthrate is all the Boomer cunts who will die having seen their dreams of spending their twilight years as doting grandparents turn to dust

10. From my generation (late x / early millennial) within my family across my marriage, my wife and I have the only two children. My brother and two brother in laws look likely to never have children. So the ratio of grandparents to grandchildren is 2:1 with a generational birthday rate of 0.4.

11. I can’t even afford to live on my own…it’s quite clear why the birth rate is collapsing

12. Short term pain for long term sustainability. All this ‘go forth and multiply’ BS is an environmental nightmare.

13. Its happening all over the western alligned world. Perhaps the economic order is bullshit.

14. A big part of me not having children is because I simply won’t be able to work full time and raise them. 
    I can’t even find jobs that let me go for a doctor’s appointment easily, let alone find an employer that accommodates around scholl breakfast club time , school times, holidays , after school clubs. And to be on time with that stuff I’d have to have a car to collect them? I remember being younger and my mum walked to pick us up . She wouldn’t be able to do that now, she works full time, public transport is terrible these days, and she wouldn’t have time now. 
    Life is just getting shitter and shitter for people. 

15. The more people fight over one job, the more incentive there is to pay a wage for as little as possible. When there are too many low wage little as possible jobs and people are working elsewhere…. well, we need to fix that.

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