Amid warnings of population collapse in 2025 due to falling birth rates, governments enact radical measures to boost fertility. Yet millions remain unable to expand their families, exposing a deeper crisis: the erosion of personal reproductive agency and the freedom to choose when, whether, and with whom to have a child.
In 2025, the global fertility rate is making headlines. In many countries, birth rates are declining, leading policymakers to sound the alarm over the potential for “population collapse”. In an attempt to mitigate the demographic changes, they face, some governments are employing drastic measures to persuade women to have more children. Despite this fact, millions of people around the world are unable to have the number of children they want. In every country, regardless of total fertility rate, the most consequential reproductive decision a human being can make – when, whether and with whom to have a child – is being undermined. UNFPA’s new State of World Population report argues that the real crisis we are facing is not a problem of demographic change: It is a crisis of reproductive agency.