When the niños run out

A falling birth rate, and what it means

FENCES, soldiers, infra-red cameras: the United States goes to great lengths to hold back the teeming masses across its southern border (see article). But the masses are teeming less. Mexico’s birth rate, once among the world’s highest, is in free-fall. In the 1960s Mexican mothers had nearly seven children each (whereas women in India then had fewer than six). The average now is just over two—almost the same as in the United States. The UN reckons that from 2040 the birth rate in Mexico will be the lower of the two.

http://www.economist.com/research/articlesBySubject/displaystory.cfm?subjectid=894664&story_id=15959332

[Posted by: Austin Houlgate]