Following the Japanese prime minister Kishida Fumio's recent warning that his country's demographic crisis was approaching a tipping point, Katie Stallard speaks to Vegard Skirbekk, a population economist at the Norwegian Institute of Public Health and author of Decline and Prosper: Changing Global Birth Rates and the Advantages of Fewer Children. They discuss why birth rates in many countries are falling, how the global population is ageing, and why this doesn't have to end in disaster. Plus, they examine the parallels between tackling the global climate crisis and preparing for an ageing world.

Read more:

The global ageing crisis is becoming unignorable

The question is not why the birth rate is falling – it’s why anyone has kids at all

Seventy per cent of British voters say the cost of childcare keeps mothers at home

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