CCP110: On Declining Birth Rates

In this week's conversation between Dr. James Emery White and co-host Alexis Drye, they discuss the data coming from the CDC finding that the worldwide birth rate that had seen an uptick during the pandemic has slowed way, way down. In fact, between 2007 - 2022 the birth rate has fallen 22% with the average woman today having 1.6 children. This is something that we need to pay attention to because it matters a lot more than people may think.

Episode Links

An article in Vox written by Anna North titled “You can't even pay people to have more kids” explores what countries are trying to do to counter this decline (and sadly not having very much luck).

Dr. White noted that part of the reason for this decline can be attributed to people getting married later in life or not at all. The C&C Podcast took a deeper dive into this topic during CCP76: On the Never Marrieds. And the conversation today also touched on the topic of IVF, which was discussed in detail in CCP97: On IVF.

Coincidentally, the topic of IVF also came up as part of a recent message series given by Dr. White at Mecklenburg Community Church. For this series, Meck's social media team took a poll to find out what topics people were most interested in finding out what the Bible had to say about. Coming in at #2 on that poll were the topics of IVF and abortion. You can find that entire series titled “What the Bible Really Says About…” HERE.

For those of you who are new to Church & Culture, we'd love to invite you to subscribe (for free of course) to the twice-weekly Church & Culture blog and check out the Daily Headline News - a collection of headlines from around the globe each weekday. We'd also love to hear from you if there is a topic that you'd like to see discussed on the Church & Culture Podcast in an upcoming episode. You can find the form to submit your questions at the bottom of the podcast page HERE.