I remember a time when neighborhoods sounded remarkably human. Infants wailed and toddlers shrieked. Parents, bleary-eyed and jittery with caffeine, barked orders like half-deranged lieutenants trying to hold the line. Arms flapped, milk spilled, and cereal launched across kitchens like…

Demography is destiny, goes the saying. Of course, nothing is truly set. However, the populations of many nations are shrinking. South Korea has the world’s lowest fertility rate, 0.72 per person. Rates are well below replacement throughout Asia and Europe….

“Kids these days.” We often hear older generations complaining about the younger generation because of how they’ve gotten softer and had much easier lives than previous cohorts. Young people respond with “OK Boomer,” blowing it off as something the old,…

People old enough to remember the Before Time — i.e., the time when in most everyday matters, people who weren’t causing harm were generally free to do as they liked — know what it was like to be a parent…

So it’s official. The last Italian will be born in 2225, says the Italian publication Il Messaggero. And will die 82 years later, undoubtedly childless. The problem is, of course, the dearth of children. Birth rates in Italy have dropped…