CELL CULTURE

Bombshell Studies Find Surprise Culprit Behind Birthrate Crisis

There are several theories about what might have sparked the change.

Falling fertility rates have been connected to the rise of cellphone use. Plummeting global birth rates have long been a mystery, but now researchers in two separate papers have found evidence suggesting that the rise of cell connectivity could explain the decline. One was published on Monday, and the other in May, and both saw that falling fertility rates, which began in 2007, coincided with the launch of the iPhone. “Whatever caused it was something global—something that arrived in roughly the same form in all of these places at roughly the same time,” said the second study’s authors, University of Cincinnati economics professor Hernan Moscoso Boedo and Ph.D student Nathan Hudson. One of the papers, published in the National Bureau of Economic Research, found that half of the fall in birth rates between 2007 and 2011 was due to the iPhone, and was mostly seen among people 15 to 24. As for what it is about the use of phones that may have caused the decline remains to be seen, but there are several theories, including less face-to-face social interaction, more pornography, and better sexual and contraceptive education.