Visualized: The Shrinking Future of Western Populations
Update: 2025-11-09
Description
Visualized: The Shrinking Future of Western Populations
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Key Takeaways
- Fertility rates across Western-aligned countries are well below the replacement threshold of 2.1 births per woman.
- Israel is the only Western country above the replacement rate, while most others fall between 1.2–1.8.
The world’s wealthiest economies are getting older.
In this graphic, we compare fertility rates across Western-aligned countries, showing how far they’ve fallen below the 2.1 “replacement” threshold. This pattern hints at long-run population stagnation as well as a number of resulting pressures.
Data & Discussion
The data for this visualization comes from The World Factbook. We used it to rank fertility rates in the West, measured as births per woman. Each country’s global ranking is included in this table for additional context.
| Nation | Fertility Rate (births per woman) | Global Ranking (out of 227) |
|---|---|---|
 Israel | 2.92 | 50 |
 Iceland | 1.94 | 113 |
 France | 1.90 | 121 |
 Kosovo | 1.87 | 129 |
 New Zealand | 1.85 | 131 |
 United States | 1.84 | 133 |
 Montenegro | 1.8 | 141 |
 Denmark | 1.77 | 144 |
 Belgium | 1.76 | 145 |
 Finland | 1.74 | 150 |
 Czechia | 1.73 | 154 |
 Australia | 1.73 | 155 |
 Ireland | 1.72 | 158 |
 Sweden | 1.67 | 169 |
 Luxembourg | 1.63 | 175 |
 Romania | 1.63 | 176 |
 UK | 1.63 | 177 |
 Estonia | 1.62 | 178 |
 Lithuania | 1.62 | 179 |
 Netherlands | 1.61 | 180 |
 Slovakia | 1.60 | 184 |
 Slovenia | 1.60 | 185 |
 Hungary | 1.60 | 186 |
 Switzerland | 1.59 | 187 |
 Canada | 1.58 | 189 |
 Germany | 1.58 | 190 |
 Norway | 1.57 |
