Global Drop In Fertility Rates: The Reason Is Not What You Thought It Is
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Hilary White observed on Twitter.com that low fertility rates are a global problem. She notices that this phenomenon started already in the mid 19th (article’s picture) and that chemical birth control didn't have that big an impact. It caused only a slight drop of the line but not enough to deviate much from its overall slope.
For White the drop in fertility started around 1850, with a shift from agriculture to industrialisation. In Italy this caused an emptying of the rural population into the cities, a campaign “deliberately orchestrated" by the government.
“There is certainly a massive correlation between abrupt, government-forced industrialisation - that included a programme of price fixing of agricultural products that forced small farmers out of competition - and fertility drops,” White explains.