A new analysis suggests smartphones and social media are driving a global fall in birth rates by reducing in-person interaction. Researchers found teen fertility in the US has dropped 71 percent since 2007, with similar trends worldwide. Increased screen time has led to fewer relationships, less sex, and ultimately fewer births across countries.

A new analysis report reveals that smartphones and social media are playing a central role in the synchronised, worldwide decline in birth rates, transforming how young people form relationships and fundamentally altering demographic trends.

Sharp global decline in birth rates coincides with smartphone adoption

Economists Nathan Hudson and Hernan Moscoso Boedo of the University of Cincinnati published a key research. Their work shows that in the US, teen fertility collapsed by about 71 percent since 2007, with declines hitting hardest and earliest in countries that gained high-speed mobile access first.

Fertility rates have plummeted across diverse countries, from wealthy nations like the US and UK to developing economies in Latin America, Africa, and the Middle East, in a remarkably synchronized pattern. The Financial Times reports that this 'demographic landslide' accelerated sharply in recent years, with many countries seeing fertility drop 20-40 percent below previous trends exactly when smartphones and high-speed mobile internet became widespread.