P.D. James’s 1992 dystopian novel, The Children of Men, imagines a world where a rapidly ageing human race has become infertile. Coincidentally, the novel begins in 2021 with the death of the last human to be born on Earth. Although the real 2021 is not quite as dramatic, the number of births is plummeting around the world. A COVID-19 baby bust is underway.
A year into the pandemic, it is clear that being quarantined at home has not resulted in more pregnancies—despite having all the time in the world for Netflix and chill. In fact, the COVID-19 pandemic seems to have had the opposite effect: Provisional data coming nine months after most countries locked down last March suggest a steep fall in births across the developed world and in some emerging markets.
