Page 7 | Concerned about depopulation

Shawlshare · 2025-05-27T13:06:32+00:00

AIBU to think the threat of depopulation is being massively underestimated in the UK? I am early 50s, 3 kids and have lots of friends, young professionals in their 30s involved in the same hobby as me and nobody is having kids. Nobody wants them. People can’t afford accommodation big enough for kids, cannot afford childcare and find day to day life trying to stay ahead of the cost of living crisis tiring enough. They want to spend the weekend doing what they want to do, which is fair enough, but the UK will rapidly become extinct if this goes on for long. South Korea is likely to become extinct as a country within 4 generations do to similar issues. I can see the UK going the same way. It’s scary and sad. I can’t see it reversing though as any hint of free childcare / flexible working etc etc is politically unpopular with so many. Anyone else concerned? What’s the solution?

Reonie · 27/05/2025 17:19

vinavine · 27/05/2025 17:16

The country functioned with 50 million people in many of our lifetimes

Because we didn't have the same demographics.

For one thing we had a higher turnover of people: the average age of death was lower, plus 2 world wars made a dent.

Glowingup · 27/05/2025 17:20

Shawlshare · 27/05/2025 16:52

This is part of the current political issue. I just repeated his own personal tale that a man from Nigeria was happy to call
in and give about his personal journey to working in a bank in Britain and I am called racist. The choice for Britain is
a) a British person living here currently claiming out of work benefits takes the job and we save on the benefits; or
b) someone from Nigeria takes the job and Britain has to continue to support his family and him and the person on benefits because he didn’t get the job.

Situation a) is clearly the best economic option for the UK and yet in pointing this out I am racist. Reform will rise due to the likes of you shutting down perfectly reasonable discussions like this as ‘racist’. Let’s cut Reform’s current lead in the polls by showing that we are open to discussing these concerns rather than just shutting them down. It was the democrats in the IS calling everyone who raised women’s rights ‘transphobic’ that lost them the US election afterall.

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But if your point is that there won’t be many British people left then why are you worried about anyone taking their jobs? Immigrants will fill vacancies where they exist, not steal jobs.
Sorry but you do sound racist with your comments about British culture. The world is so overpopulated and about half of it could die and we’d still be fine. When my mum was at school she learned there were 4 billion people and now there’s twice that.
Also Korea will be fine. You will be fine. Spend time worrying about real problems.

Crushed23 · 27/05/2025 17:23

mindutopia · 27/05/2025 17:02

I am now in my mid 40s, but I certainly don’t know anyone in their 30s who wants to have children who isn’t doing it. Frankly, every school mum in her 40s at the moment seems to be pregnant or has a young baby or toddler.

Is your hobby a particularly expensive one? Or one that attracts a certain type of person less inclined to traditional family life? BIL and SIL (in their 30s btw) are childfree by choice and would definitely find children expensive. But it’s because they are like van life surfers who still go to raves in forests and buy very expensive mountain bikes. If they spent less money on £4000 bikes and wetsuits and drugs 😂 they would almost certainly be able to afford to have children, if they wanted them, but they don’t, which is perfectly fine.

While I’m not quite like your BIL/SIL with their van life surfer lifestyle, I do travel a lot and primarily do adventure holidays or backpack/travel around a place. We have just come back from a week long road trip in the desert, visiting various national parks, doing challenging hikes in scorching heat. We then ended the trip in a party town and went to two raves. There is not one part of this trip that could have been done with a child under the age of about 12. It’s a lot to give up for a long period of time…

vinavine · 27/05/2025 17:23

The world is so overpopulated and about half of it could die and we’d still be fine.

Not if it was all the young ones who die...

You will be fine. Spend time worrying about real problems.

How is it not a real problem? It's one reason for the current high COL.

SeriaMau · 27/05/2025 17:23

Shawlshare · 27/05/2025 14:21

The human race as a whole, but what about you and your future? If the uk population has halved in the next 20 years - as it is expected to do in South Korea, that’s a city with only half the people living in it that there are now, your street half full, a tiny working population’s taxes trying to support a massive retired population. Half the chance of getting a GP appointment that you have now as there are far fewer working medics for a larger retired population. And all western societies are going the same way. It’s not just about how much water there is to go around, or how much food we have to import. It’s far more structural than that.

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There are 60 - 70 million people in the UK. We die at about 1 million per year. If nobody had ANY children, and there was no net immigration, the population could theoretically drop by 50% in about 30 - 35 years. But that is not going to happen.

PhilippaGeorgiou · 27/05/2025 17:31

Peripissedoff · 27/05/2025 17:11

I don’t think it’s ignorance.. and thank you for sharing your facts but .. doesn’t that mean that more Muslim boys are being born than previous years though?? More being born, more being named Muhammad hence moving up the list. 62% would include white Eastern European immigrants.. so wouldn’t all be Joe 🫢. You’re completely missing my point. My family also comes from European immigrants. However I’m highlighting this culture is having more babies because of their family traditions, family support and beliefs. If you’re taking the fact I’ve written "it says it all” as racism then you’ve completely misunderstood my point.

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I am fairly clear that I know more Asian people than you do because if you knew that many you would know that family sizes are dropping to close to the UK average. Less that an estimated 3% of boys being born are of likely Muslim heritage (and almost all of those are not immigrants, or even the children of immigrants). And apparently Eastern European gets its own classification. And I am not missing your point. My family are Irish (catholic) immigrants - I have no children, my brother has one and my sister has none. Racial profiling is still racism.

Peripissedoff · 27/05/2025 17:33

PlutoCat · 27/05/2025 16:46

As for your question I’m 100% concerned about the future and there’s no solution as if you look on something like babycentre the top boy name is Muhammad… think that says it all

ahhh yes truth and fact.. confirming my point

I am glad you mentioned truth and fact.

Here are the facts and truth.

In 2023, 1.55% of baby boys were given the name Muhammed.

So go on, then. What does it say? 🤔

(1.46% were given the name Noah).

Oh, and the three most popular names for baby girls in England and Wales were Olivia, Amelia and Isla, remaining unchanged since 2022.

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I love the name Noah.. 🥰

PlutoCat · 27/05/2025 17:34

Peripissedoff · 27/05/2025 17:11

I don’t think it’s ignorance.. and thank you for sharing your facts but .. doesn’t that mean that more Muslim boys are being born than previous years though?? More being born, more being named Muhammad hence moving up the list. 62% would include white Eastern European immigrants.. so wouldn’t all be Joe 🫢. You’re completely missing my point. My family also comes from European immigrants. However I’m highlighting this culture is having more babies because of their family traditions, family support and beliefs. If you’re taking the fact I’ve written "it says it all” as racism then you’ve completely misunderstood my point.

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More being born, more being named Muhammad hence moving up the list. 62% would include white Eastern European immigrants.. so wouldn’t all be Joe 🫢

Well if course they wouldn't all be Joe unless they were part of a faith that commonly used the name Joe.

So, in your view, how does the fact that 1.55% of baby boys born in 2023 were given the name Muhammad (and 1.46% the name Noah) "say it all". What do you mean by that?

Eta: I am guessing you won't give an answer.

Thelostjewels · 27/05/2025 17:36

@AlecTrevelyan006 but why do we need to

What was UK population in medieval times,what was it in 1930 etc

Crushed23 · 27/05/2025 17:39

Daffodilsarefading · 27/05/2025 16:27

I think a lot of working women have realised that having children can be very hard work. It can ruin your body. Labour can be traumatic. It is them, and not their oh who will shoulder the grunt wok. It is them whose career will take the hit, their pension will take the hit, their mental well being will take the hit etc etc.
To top it all the likely hood is that they will either end up as a single parent or having to tolerate all of the above because most women will tell them that men do not pull their weight.
Add to this the cost of childcare as most grandparents will be working for far longer than previous generations.

All of this. I read a comment on another thread that was something like “having children disproportionately disadvantages women, and fewer and fewer women are falling for it” which I think hits the nail on the head too.

MushMonster · 27/05/2025 17:40

Or we either have too many people, like the media are saying day in and day out.
Or we do not and we are at a balance.
Or we have too few people, as you say.

We cannot be in the very same situation, all at the same time..... bar minor local discrepancies, which may be what you are experiencing. So you may see a reduction in population in your area because people are moving to cheaper areas, or with higher job options, easier commute... I do nt think that the country needs to worry much about this. But your local council could work on it, indeed.

Glowingup · 27/05/2025 17:43

Crushed23 · 27/05/2025 17:39

All of this. I read a comment on another thread that was something like “having children disproportionately disadvantages women, and fewer and fewer women are falling for it” which I think hits the nail on the head too.

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Plus gone are the days when your kids looked after you in old age. My mums friend who gave up her career to devote her life to her two boys is extremely lonely as she never sees her children of grandchildren- both of them have married women who don’t like their MIL and they don’t give a shit about her - genuinely. Her husband cheated on her and left. Doesn’t sound like an idyllic life.

JHound · 27/05/2025 17:44

I don’t care about depopulation. I think we cannot simultaneously complain about the country being full and also complain we don’t have enough people being born.

I do think though we interrogate the why as to why people are having fewer children by asking them directly.

I know in Korea it’s cultural, a plummeting marriage rate has a knock on impact on birth rates. In the UK it would be interesting to see what the driver is (I am one of the ones with no kids and a large chunk of my female friends have none either.)

Whippetlovely · 27/05/2025 17:44

Iamthequeenoftheworld · 27/05/2025 15:35

Artificial intelligence is right around the corner!!! Soon there will be no need for existing humans

my brother works in seo, and also owns multiple profitable websites, ai is completely replacing his job already!!!

Exactly my thinking, AI is definitely going to have a Huge impact on everyone's day to day lives. I've got a feeling the genie is out the bottle and it's more of a concern to me than an ageing population. We're making ourselves redundant.

JHound · 27/05/2025 17:47

Shawlshare · 27/05/2025 14:21

The human race as a whole, but what about you and your future? If the uk population has halved in the next 20 years - as it is expected to do in South Korea, that’s a city with only half the people living in it that there are now, your street half full, a tiny working population’s taxes trying to support a massive retired population. Half the chance of getting a GP appointment that you have now as there are far fewer working medics for a larger retired population. And all western societies are going the same way. It’s not just about how much water there is to go around, or how much food we have to import. It’s far more structural than that.

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The UK population will not half in 20 years. South Korea is not predicted to half in 20 years.

Womblingmerrily · 27/05/2025 17:48

@Reonie I agree with you but I think women want children more than men do usually..

If they don't and choose a child free life - all power to them (although dodging elder care is even harder if you're 'free and unburdened'

If they want them solo, that is possible these days, although I do worry about how children react to that choice as they grow up. I've seen mixed research. It's also really hard if you don't have support in place or a rock solid well paid job/ secure housing.

I think men can also be happy with a single child free life, dipping in and out of relationships as wished.

I wish society really valued the long, difficult skilled job that parenting is - and supported it financially because it is of societal benefit. But our society doesn't.

Peripissedoff · 27/05/2025 17:49

PlutoCat · 27/05/2025 17:34

More being born, more being named Muhammad hence moving up the list. 62% would include white Eastern European immigrants.. so wouldn’t all be Joe 🫢

Well if course they wouldn't all be Joe unless they were part of a faith that commonly used the name Joe.

So, in your view, how does the fact that 1.55% of baby boys born in 2023 were given the name Muhammad (and 1.46% the name Noah) "say it all". What do you mean by that?

Eta: I am guessing you won't give an answer.

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I’m not sure why you’re NOT 😆understanding the says it all comment. You’re trying to make out I’m being racist about it. I’m not I’m highlighting a name has significantly moved up a baby list which isn’t traditionally British. This faith usually in my experience has larger families that live together and have different beliefs and values. It isn’t a traditional British name which is what I’m highlighting. My daughter doesn’t have a traditional British name. It’s a European name but it’s become popular however I picked it because of my family background. 🙄

Icanttakethisanymore · 27/05/2025 17:49

YANBU - most people have no idea what the economic impact of an aging population will be on this country. It’s a problem in many developed nations, pro-natal policies don’t seem to have much impact either. An aging population / depopulation is fine unless you want a state pension when you retire or universal healthcare for all.

Morningsleepin · 27/05/2025 17:50

I'm mystified. I left the UK 55 years ago and the population has barely grown since then, yet there is no housing nor sufficient services.

vinavine · 27/05/2025 17:52

most people have no idea what the economic impact of an aging population will be on this country.

@Icanttakethisanymore why do you think there is such a lack of awareness & general apathy? Do you think people think it won't impact them?

Glowingup · 27/05/2025 17:52

Morningsleepin · 27/05/2025 17:50

I'm mystified. I left the UK 55 years ago and the population has barely grown since then, yet there is no housing nor sufficient services.

It’s grown by 13 million since then

vinavine · 27/05/2025 17:53

I left the UK 55 years ago and the population has barely grown since then, yet there is no housing nor sufficient services.

no investment in either which hasn't helped

RaininSummer · 27/05/2025 17:54

Itisallabitvague · 27/05/2025 14:14

There are FAR too many people in the world, a little bit of depopulation is needed. I don't care whether it's Britain or Bangladesh.

Yes I agree. The world is bursting at the seams.

JHound · 27/05/2025 17:56

Peripissedoff · 27/05/2025 16:20

ahhh yes truth and fact.. confirming my point

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You haven’t given “fact” though. Just bigotry and your personal experience.

And “Muhammed” being the top boys name means nothing when a mere 1.5% of boys born are called Muhammed. It just means muslim parents are less original when selecting boys names.

Icanttakethisanymore · 27/05/2025 17:56

vinavine · 27/05/2025 17:52

most people have no idea what the economic impact of an aging population will be on this country.

@Icanttakethisanymore why do you think there is such a lack of awareness & general apathy? Do you think people think it won't impact them?

I think it’s not really even discussed - I listen to a lot of news and political podcasts etc. but I also listen to some really niche stuff, like the IFS podcast for example, which has a great episode on pro natal policies and their effectiveness (spoiler, they don’t work) and so that’s why I’m aware of the economic problems associated with it. Immigration isn’t popular generally (and I understand why when public service are stretched) but no one is very honest about the impact of low immigration and low birth rates.