The screen between us: Smartphones and the global fertility crash

Birthrates are collapsing across the developed world, and the numbers are stark enough to unsettle most demographers. Nearly three‑quarters of humanity already live in countries with fertility at sub-replacement levels, according to the United Nations. A 2024 Lancet forecast goes further: 97 percent of countries are projected to fall below replacement fertility by 2100, a demographic inversion without historical precedent. These declines imply shrinking workforces, depleted pension funds, increasingly isolated older adults and a worsening of the politics around immigration, often seen as the only realistic remedy in Western societies. Familiar forces have been blamed — delayed parenthood, wider access...