Britain isn’t only experiencing an energy crisis. We have a procreation crisis, too. A fear of sprogging up has gripped younger people in particular. There is now even talk of a ‘baby shortage’. Britain’s birth rate is almost half what it was at its most recent historic peak in the 1960s. In England and Wales in 1964, the average number of children per woman was 2.93. In 2020 it was 1.58. In Scotland it was lower still: 1.29. This is far below the 2.1 ‘replacement level’, as experts call it, which is the average number of children per woman we need if we’re going to keep the population stable and balanced. Shorter version: there just aren’t enough kids.
