File Photo REUTERS - Manuel Ausloos
Economists Nathan Hudson and Hernan Moscoso-Boedo have found a link between falling birth rates and the launch of 4G networks. According to their data, in the United States and the United Kingdom, birth rates declined faster in regions where high-speed mobile Internet was introduced earlier than in others, the Financial Times reported.
The researchers believe that digital technologies have changed the way young people live and reduced the amount of personal communication.
As the FT notes, a similar pattern was observed in other countries. In the United States, Britain and Australia, fertility among young people began to decline sharply after 2007, in France and Poland – after 2009, and in Mexico, Morocco and Indonesia – after 2012. Similar declines were later recorded in Ghana, Nigeria and Senegal.
The mass distribution of smartphones began in the late 2000s: the first iPhone was introduced in 2007, and the Android platform appeared a year later. The first commercial 4G network was launched in Sweden and Norway in late 2009.
Melissa Kearney, professor of economics at the University of Notre Dame, told the FT that today’s digital environment has likely seriously altered social relationships and led to fewer romantic connections.
However, the researchers emphasize: smartphones and mobile internet are seen as one of the factors behind the decline in fertility, along with the rising cost of living, changing behaviors and economic instability.
