Over the past 70 years, the global birth rate has dropped from roughly five children per woman in 1950 to 2.2, and 2.1 is considered the replacement level for a continuing population. In countries such as Serbia, the birth rate was 1.1 in 2023 and continued to drop in 2024. Meanwhile, in African nations such as Chad, the average woman has seven children.

There are a number of rich and influential celebrities, such as Peter Thiel and Elon Musk, who have sounded the alarm about this situation. There are whole movements, such as Quiverfull and the Natal Conference, devoted to reversing this trend and jacking birth rates back up. Evidence indicates that the effort will be, pardon the expression, fruitless. As many of the entries on this list will indicate, it’s a movement that is ill-served by its adherents.

Related: 10 Victims Whose Parents Never Gave Up

10 Abortion Bans Aren’t Making Up the Difference

It’s unquestionably true that since the Dobbs ruling, which took away federal protections for abortion rights in more conservative states, birth rates in those states have risen. Texas, for instance, saw a 16,000 increase from 2021 to 2022, of which about 84% were Latino/Hispanic teens. That certainly sounds like it will solve the problem, regardless of how someone feels about bodily autonomy or quality of life for parents.

As of 2024, though, it hasn’t. Even in South Dakota, the state with the highest percentage increase, in 2022, it was still 2.0, which was just shy of the replacement level. Part of this can be accounted for in the fact that even with abortion bans in place, many demographics are still seeing net birth rate drops.

Considering Texas again, the same year that Hispanic teen births went up 13,000 and 5% overall, white female births went down 0.2%, and black births 0.6%. Indeed, white teen pregnancies dropped 5%. The birth rate would have sunk much lower below replacement level without Roe V Wade being overturned (the California birth rate went down 20,000 in California in 2022, for example), but so far, the targets have not been reached.^[1]

9 Prohibitively Expensive or Dangerous Birth Process

The reader probably doesn’t need to be told how unaffordable many basic healthcare costs are getting in a number of countries. In light of the nature of the widespread birth crisis, certain allowances should be made to incentivize births. Instead, birth costs have risen so that, on average, an uninsured patient will be charged $18,865 as of January 2024.

For those who have insurance, the average cost is about $2,655. That’s if the birth is an uncomplicated vaginal procedure. If a caesarian section is required (and it is in about 30% of cases), then the price goes up to $25,820 for the uninsured and $3,200(9b) with insurance. This is in a context where, in the United States of America, 63% of employees report that they cannot afford a $500 emergency.

Traditionalists might recommend opting for a home delivery to cut down on the expenses, which is valid in a strictly financial sense. If an expecting parent hires a midwife, the services are likely to be covered by many insurance providers. However, these services are still expensive themselves: A $6,000 bill for the uninsured is typical. The financially downtrodden should know that only 21 states cover home deliveries through Medicaid.

All of this is disregarding the single greatest problem with home delivery: It is twice as likely to result in the death of the newborn. So it is little wonder that 37% of others attempting home delivery end up going to a hospital, adding thousands to their medical bill. Judging single women or couples for hesitating to go forward with such a dangerous, expensive procedure is simply absurd.^[2]

8 Birth Defect Rates Rising

There are regions experiencing as high as 50% increases in rates of birth defects, such as the United Kingdom from the nineties to the aughts. These defects include cleft lip, born with intestines outside the body, fatal heart flaws, etc. At present, one in sixteen children can be expected to be born with a significant birth abnormality. In America, the rate rose between 2005 and 2022 at roughly 10.7% per year, going from about 1% of births to 2.9%. This is a disconcerting trend for a nation where every state is already below replacement level.

This is absolutely not to say that persons born with severe birth defects do not deserve to live. However, they remain more likely to die in infancy. The extra surgeries often mean more and much greater expenses for an already very costly procedure, even for those very well-insured. Those are only the short-term problems.^[3]

7 Pollution Lowering Fertility

Multiple studies are finding that women who live in more heavily polluted areas are conceiving significantly less often, despite their best efforts. A survey of 18,000 couples in China found that those who lived in dense urban areas were 20% less capable of conceiving after one year of trying.

In America, a 2019 study of 632 women by the Massachusetts General Hospital Fertility Clinic found that women in environments with high concentrations of fine particulate matter in the air, which is typical in urban areas, lost their eggs and were rendered infertile earlier in life. For those who tried IVF instead, a study published in the periodical Human Reproduction in 2024 found that in neighborhoods with high levels of pollution, IVF conception failed 38%(7c) more often.

Men are also deeply susceptible to potency damage from pollution. Hagai Levine from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem reported in 2022 that the minimum threshold before low sperm count led to a decrease in fertility was under roughly 40 million per milliliter. Levine went on to report that between 1973 and 2018, global average sperm counts went from 104 million to 49 million per milliliter.

In 2000, the rate began dropping roughly 2.6% annually. A study published in Nature in 2022 found that fully 7% of men have been infertile their whole lives. That puts human sperm counts near a threshold where many communities will start to see a significant drop in fertility.^[4]

6 Miscarriage Rates

Miscarriage is a true tragedy but an extremely common one as well. About 20% of pregnancies end in a miscarriage or a stillbirth (stillbirth meaning self-terminating pregnancy after 20 weeks, miscarriage being those that happen earlier). You’d think medical advances, modern stress relief, etc. prevent that. In recent years, they have not. A 2018 New England Journal of Medicine study found that miscarriage rates were increasing by 1% per year. This rate is not at all consistent for the duration of the pregnancy: Stillbirth rates are about 1 in 160.

Unsurprisingly, miscarriages and stillbirths bring with them great emotional turmoil for large numbers of aspiring parents. A 2015 study published in Obstetrics and Gynecology found that 50% of those who experienced one felt guilt, and a quarter felt shame. That is a great emotional risk that many people will have to run if they decide to try for parenthood.^[5]

5 Antinatalism/Childfree Lifestyle Spreading

The notion that not having children is more moral than having them has an inherent, self-defeating obstacle in achieving widespread popularity. Its own adherents are inherently less likely to have children to carry on their values; they’re less likely to acquire the money needed for power and influence, and they’re less likely to feel the militant need to proselytize. None of this has stopped the antinatalist movement from growing in popularity in recent years.

Nor has the popularity of being a child-free woman deteriorated. In 2006, there were nine million childless women of childbearing age in the United States. By 2022, that number had grown to 21.9 million. Over the same time span, the U.S. population hadn’t come anywhere close to doubling (specifically, it went from 298 million to 338 million).

Even if a huge number of these women decide to have children after all, consider that after a woman reaches age 30, her odds of having a miscarriage or stillbirth increase dramatically. The risk reaches about 40-50% higher when a woman reaches age 40. Biological clocks are running faster and more urgently than many people realize.^[6]

4 Lowering Birth Options

With a potential baby bust on the horizon and so many wealthy futurists concerned about it, it would be sensible to make birth centers abundantly available to lower the cost by increasing the supply of providers. That has been almost the opposite of the American approach to the problem. Between 2011 and 2023, 217 hospitals stopped offering birth center services.

Instead of the closures stopping in 2024, the rate actually increased dramatically, so that 26 had stopped providing this service at the time of writing. Gynecological and perinatal services were generally still offered at these hospitals, but many women in rural areas had to have their delivery far out of state or turn to midwives whether they wanted to or not.

The reason for this is a matter of insurance providers. More than 40% of insurance coverage for births is through Medicaid instead of private or employer insurance, and the percentage is even higher in rural areas. Medicaid compensates hospitals less than half as much as private companies do. This is why these hospitals tend to withdraw these services in rural areas, particularly in states where Medicaid coverage is less generous.^[7]

3 One Child Desirability

Of course, tens of millions of women have overcome all these obstacles and reproduced. Many of them have, after experiencing the ordeal of childbirth, settled on having one. This is a perfectly reasonable course of action. A 2022 report in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology reviewed 188 studies and found that having a single child is where couples find the highest level of satisfaction, having achieved the biological necessity of reproducing without taking on too much time pressure among other concerns.

The issue remains that the replacement level birth rate is 2.1. The rate of women who only have one child during their childbearing years has been growing over the years, doubling from 1976 to 2015 from 11% to 22%. China’s One-Child Policy from 1979 to 2015 provides plenty of warning about how too many couples with one child can be a destabilizing matter for broader society, even though it can be highly desirable for the individual home.^[8]

2 Climate Change

Regardless of whether the changes in the climate are anthropogenic or the result of natural cycles beyond human control, the rate and extremity of climate disasters are alarming, and the severity is increasing. These sorts of concerns are taking their toll on the confidence potential parents have in the future. A July 2024 Pew Research poll said that of people of childbearing age who did not intend to have children, a quarter said that worries about the environment were their primary motivation.

Even if these concerns were to be removed from the heads of everyone, the fact that as of 2023, on average, every three weeks, America suffers $1 billion of damage from climate disasters does not bode well for future economic stability. For further context, in 2022, 32 million people were made refugees by natural disasters, and that was a 41% increase from 2008. If extreme environmental disasters continue, you can expect it to be a boon for the ranks of the antinatalist movement.^[9]

1 Romantic Disinterest

In recent years, people that are not able to get into romantic or sexual relationships have developed a stigma due to acts of violence by individuals dubbed “incels,” such as Tres Genco and Alek Minassian. That has probably left a lot of people less willing to discuss a hard fact about the contemporary state of relationships. Many young people aren’t just failing to enter serious, child-rearing relationships. They’re not even working for romantic relationships in general.

A Pew Research poll released in May 2024 found that only 40% of single people are interested in even a casual relationship, let alone a serious, committed one. The same poll found that among 18-29 year olds, 37% expressed no interest in relationships or dating at all. For those who might think that’s a phase people will grow out of, the fact is that the same poll showed that from ages 30-49, it’s 39% who have no interest in it.

Women were found to be substantially more likely to be uninterested (70% for women over 40 vs. 42% for men). This is likely to grow as time goes on since, reportedly, 44% of the most recent adult generation went their entire teen years without a relationship. That is a large segment of the population that will be less equipped to enter into relationships and contribute to raising the birth rate.^[10]

They say that there are only two things guaranteed in life: death and taxes. And you can at least commit tax fraud for a while if you try. But that death thing has so far managed to catch up with literally everyone. If it were only as simple as one day being alive and another day being dead maybe it’d be less stressful and less anxiety inducing, but no such luck. When you start to look into it, there are so many ways to die, so many contributing factors and so many unexpected and unpleasant statistics about mortality that it might make you want to just hide indoors for the rest of your life. 

10. Brazilian Butt Lifts Are the Deadliest Cosmetic Surgery Procedure

We accept that some things in life are deadlier than others. Trying to pet a tiger is going to be more dangerous than trying to pet a house cat. You’re at greater risk from open heart surgery than you are from having a bunion removed. But there are some truly staggering statistics when it comes to one unlikely procedure that you may not be aware of. A Brazilian butt life is the deadliest plastic surgery procedure going. 

The procedure, meant to make your butt look rounder, perkier and fuller by injecting fat from places in your body where it isn’t wanted into your butt, has the highest mortality rate of any cosmetic procedure that is around one in 3,000. 

The procedure can cost as much as $15,000 to get done. In 2020 alone, over 40,000 butt procedures were done despite the risks. In the UK, surgeons have been advised to not perform the procedure at all, though it’s not banned. 

In a survey, three percent of doctors responded that they’d had a patient die from the procedure. Most deaths can be attributed to pulmonary fat emboli which is when fat ends up in your pulmonary system. Some occur and are not fatal, but others are not so lucky. 

9. Munchausen by Proxy Mortality Rates are About 9% to 10%

Factitious disorder imposed on another is the current name for the condition better known as Munchausen syndrome by proxy. It’s a mental disorder in which a caregiver makes as though the person they are caring for is sick with something they do not actually have. The condition often seems to be a way for the caregiver to get attention and sympathy, perhaps to be seen as brave or strong for trying to help someone else overcome their illness, when in fact they are the cause of that illness. This may be as simple as gaslighting the alleged patient, especially if they are a child, by convincing them they are sick, but often may also go as far as the caregiver harming the victim in some way by medicating or even poisoning them to make them fit the symptoms. 

Because the entire syndrome is based around a fake illness, it seems like the victim may not be in all that much danger, but the opposite is true. The would-be caregivers often go to great lengths to make the victim fit their false narrative to the extent that the mortality rate for the condition is around 9%.

8. Catch and Release Fishing Mortality is About 18% But Up to 40%

It’s not just human mortality rates that can be depressing. Our unfortunate fish friends in rivers, lakes and streams around the country that we thought were benefiting from catch and release practices are not doing nearly as well as you’d think. 

The idea behind catch and release fishing seems noble enough. You catch a fish, take it off the hook and let it go again so you get the enjoyment of fishing and the fish gets to live another day. Unfortunately, the mortality rate for the fish is between 18% and 40% according to various studies.

A number of factors contribute to what may cause the fish to die even after it’s released, with the location of the hook when the fish is caught being the greatest contributing factor,  but it’s safe to say that they’re not all going to swim off and tell the story to a friend. 

7. Pro Wrestler Mortality is Far Higher Than The Wider Population

If you’re a lifelong fan of professional wrestling, then you no doubt have had to watch a number of your favorites from the past die young. It’s no secret in the industry that wrestlers die young. Many succumb to addiction or health issues related to past drug use. But there are also a number of accidents or other violent deaths that occur as well. In the end, it’s very rare for a pro wrestler to live to a ripe, old age.

For wrestlers between 45 and 54, their mortality rate is nearly three times greater than that of the wider population. When it comes to deaths related to cardiovascular conditions, wrestler deaths occur at a rate 15.1 times greater than the population at large. Cancer deaths among wrestlers are 6.4 times higher. And drug overdose deaths are astronomically higher at 122.7 times more than the wider population. 

As has been noted, some of this can perhaps be attributed to the lifestyle of pro wrestlers, especially in the past. In the 80s, many wrestlers were widely known to and have admitted to using cocaine, steroids and other drugs. And because, unlike most sports, wrestling has no off season, these athletes were pushing their bodies non-stop for years. 

6. People Who Read Have a 20% Lower Mortality Rate

Good news for those of you who like to curl up with a good book, you’re statistically more likely to have extra time to read those books than someone who doesn’t. People who read have a 20% lower mortality rate than those who don’t. 

Specifically, you need to read books to achieve the statistically significant benefits of reading, and magazines or newspapers won’t cut it. The speculated reason is that a book engages your mind in a way magazines and newspapers can’t, which translates into greater mental engagement and a tangible benefit to your overall lifespan.

5. Ford Fiestas Have the Highest Mortality Rate of Any Car

Have you ever heard that you have to pay higher insurance on red cars because they get stolen more often? It’s true that certain types of cars present unique risks for car owners but if you want to really get into which car is best or worst to be driving, you may want to think seriously about certain vehicles like the Ford Fiesta. 

In 2017, data showed the Fiesta as the deadliest car on the road with a death rate of 141 per 1 million registered cars. Compare that to something like a Chevy Corvette at 54 or a Porsche Cayenne with 0. 

Luxury SUVs actually have the lowest death rates overall while small cars have proven to be the least safe.

4. Human Mortality Goes Up in Areas Where Trees Die

Some things in life are inexorably linked together. If there are no bees, for instance, then flowers would suffer from a lack of pollinators. So what happens when trees start to die? People die, too. 

Research has shown that, as the emerald ash borer devastated tree populations, there was a marked increase in diseases in human populations. Cases of heart disease and pneumonia began to rise. Over a 10 year period, 100 million trees died as a result. In the states where the trees died, 15,000 more people died from cardiovascular disease and 6,000 more succumbed to respiratory disease when compared to areas without the tree infections.

The data spanned 1,296 different counties and tried to factor in other variables as well. In the end it became clear that fewer trees equals higher mortality.

3. Too Much (or Too Intense) Exercise May Increase Mortality Rates 

Surely if you want to live longer, then part of the key is to maintain a healthy lifestyle which includes plenty of exercise. Well, yes and no on that one. There’s plenty of evidence that living an active lifestyle is good for you but there’s also that “everything in moderation” saying.

The World Health Organization suggests that, every week, you get 150 to 300 minutes of moderate-intensity aerobic activity or 75 to 150 minutes of vigorous intensity. And no, most people don’t get that much at all. But there is some limited data now that too much exercise at too great an intensity can start having the opposite effect of that desired. This stems from a study of joggers in which a couple of participants who went extremely vigorous in their exercise routine died. 

Other studies have also shown that you may be at risk of cardiovascular problems if you frequently engage in serious endurance exercise like running marathons. These results are all still being debated, but there is also limited evidence that you get any benefit from pushing your workout to extremes, so the safest bet is probably to stay in the middle somewhere. 

2. Taller People Have a Higher Mortality Rate 

Some traits are seen as more desirable in modern, Western society than others. A lot of these traits are physical and we only have so much control over them on an individual basis. There’s little you can do, for instance, if you want to be tall but you aren’t. And yet it’s hard to deny that many people see being tall as desirable and attractive. So good news for the vertically challenged, there’s some evidence that being tall isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. Taller people, in general, have a higher mortality rate. 

In one study, every four inches of height increased the risk of all types of cancer in postmenopausal women by 13%. Each additional inch in height for men turns into a 2.2% increased chance of death from literally any cause compared to shorter people.

1. Robert Liston Performed a Surgery with a 300% Mortality Rate

We touched on some of the dangers of surgery either but even among the deadliest of surgeries the mortality rate is often a number that makes sense, at least mathematically. But there is at least one case when that didn’t happen and a single surgery managed to end with a 300% mortality rate. If you’re doing the math yourself, that means one person got surgery and three people died as a result.

You have to take some gentle liberties with this tale but it’s been documented well enough to hold some water. To start, the procedure was performed by doctor Robert Liston, a surgeon in the early 1800s before the invention of anesthesia.

Liston was apparently known to be fairly competent but, most importantly for the time, fast. If surgery had to be done with no anesthesia, then you can imagine why speed would be of the essence. And for this surgery Liston Was to be performing an amputation. He accomplished his intended goal as well, removing a patient’s leg in just two and a half minutes. We know the time because Liston, apparently somewhat arrogant in regards to his skill, asked to be timed. 

In two and a half minutes, Liston had condemned three people to death. His first victim was an observing doctor who was there to watch the procedure. As Liston was sawing the patient’s leg off at the hip, he switched from one cutting implement to another. In his haste, he slashed through the coat of the observing doctor and though he never cut the man, apparently the fellow was overwhelmed by the fact he saw spurting blood and felt the pull on his coat as Liston tore through it. He died of a heart attack.

Meanwhile, Liston needed the patient to be restrained for obvious reasons, so an assistant had to hold the poor man down. Liston cut the assistant’s fingers off as he removed the patient’s legs.

Both surgical assistant and patient went on to develop gangrenous infections and die a short time later, this cementing Liston as the only doctor ever to kill three people in a single surgery.