Study .. Smartphones May Be Linked to Declining Fertility Rates

As governments around the world struggle to find ways to reverse the sharp decline in birth rates, two new American studies suggest that a major factor behind this trend may have been largely overlooked: the smartphone.

Researchers behind the studies believe that smartphone users have fewer social interactions and, as a result, engage less frequently in real-life sexual activity.

The fertility rate in the United States has fallen by 22% since 2007. Scientists hypothesize that this significant decline coincides with the launch of the first iPhone in the same year.

To test this hypothesis, two researchers from Middlebury College, Caitlin Myers and Ezekiel Huber, relied on the fact that the iPhone was available in the United States between 2007 and 2011 through only one telecommunications provider.

They compared fertility rates in areas covered by that network with those in regions without coverage, where iPhone use was presumed to be much lower.

In their study published by the National Bureau of Economic Research, the researchers found that U.S. counties with access to the network experienced a steeper decline in the number of children per woman than counties without such access.

The decrease was especially noticeable among younger age groups, particularly those aged 15 to 24. According to the researchers, “the decline in fertility is concentrated mainly among young people and is largely driven by a reduction in unintended births.”

They argue that this trend is not primarily related to the cost of raising children, but rather to a decline in social interactions and sexual activity.

The researchers emphasized that smartphones are not the sole cause of declining fertility rates. However, they consider them an important factor that is largely unaffected by pro-natalist policies based on financial incentives.

Two other economists from the University of Cincinnati, Nathan Hudson and Hernán Moscoso Boedo, expanded the hypothesis to 128 countries.

By analyzing World Bank data on smartphone adoption and adolescent fertility rates, they observed that fertility declines accelerated alongside the widespread use of smartphones—a pattern found across countries with very different health, social, economic, and cultural contexts.