Daniel Hess: We need a pro-natal culture

Reversing declining birthrates will require “a pro-natal culture stronger than you've ever had,” says researcher Daniel Hess.

Across the world, births are falling – with many countries are now below replacement levels. It’s a shift could have far reaching impacts – reshaping economic growth and pensions, family life, housing markets, and the future of communities.

To talk about this problem – and the solutions – Hess, a demographer who writes at his Substack More Births joins Inside Policy Talks. Hess’s research focuses on the global fertility decline: what’s driving it, what’s misunderstood about it, and what societies can realistically do if they want to reverse it.

On the podcast, he tells Peter Copeland, deputy director of domestic policy at the Macdonald-Laurier Institute, that “culture is the engine that has to turn this around.”

One of the key factors Hess points to for creating a more fertile culture is marriage – which he describes as “probably the most powerful pro-natal technology ever invented.” He also says higher levels of religiosity and more conservative-leaning political views foster higher birth rates.

The stakes are high. Hess says birth rates matter when it comes to long-term quality of life and economic prosperity.

“More people means more innovation,” says Hess. “Contra the Malthusians, it turns out that when you have a lot of smart people working together, the sum is very much greater than the parts, and so we've had this prosperous virtuous cycle” as the global population rose.

He says the opposite is also true.

“If there's fewer and fewer people, you're going to lose economies of scale. You're going to actually lose innovation.”

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