People are having fewer children all over the world, affecting separate regions in different ways. Newsweek has mapped out which countries have the lowest and highest fertility rates to break down where demographic shifts are happening and what impact they are having.

Globally, the fertility rate, the average number of births per woman, was 2.2 as of 2023, the most recent year for which the World Bank has official data—this is down from 4.7 in 1960. Although the world fertility rate has fluctuated throughout the decades, rising to 5.3 in 1963, it has been on a steady decline since.

Fears around birth rates are usually over how this demographic shift could lead to aging populations where there are not enough working-age people to support the elderly—the replacement level necessary to

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