{"id":146816,"date":"2026-06-12T14:14:27","date_gmt":"2026-06-12T17:14:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ubirataonline.com.br\/are-smartphones-behind-the-birth-rate-dropping-npr\/"},"modified":"2026-06-12T14:14:29","modified_gmt":"2026-06-12T17:14:29","slug":"are-smartphones-behind-the-birth-rate-dropping-npr","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ubirataonline.com.br\/en\/are-smartphones-behind-the-birth-rate-dropping-npr\/","title":{"rendered":"Are smartphones behind the birth rate dropping? : NPR"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>\n

\n
\n
\n <\/picture>\n<\/div>\n
\n
\n
\n

\n Apple CEO Steve Jobs unveils the iPhone in 2007. A new working paper suggests the spread of smartphones helps explain the persistent decline in birth rates in the nearly two decades since.
\n <\/p>\n

David Paul Morris\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

<\/b>
\n hide caption<\/b><\/b>\n <\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

toggle caption<\/b><\/b>\n <\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

David Paul Morris\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

<\/span>\n<\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

Sign up for the\u00a0<\/em>Planet Money\u00a0newsletter.<\/em><\/a>\u00a0<\/em><\/strong>The world is confusing. Economics can help.<\/em><\/p>\n

Economist Caitlin Myers has a striking explanation for why women are having fewer babies: It’s the smartphones.<\/p>\n

Myers and other researchers have been searching for what’s behind the sharp drop in fertility over the last two decades. Birth rates in the U.S. have fallen by 22% since 2007.<\/p>\n

At first, economists assumed that the Great Recession was to blame but that births would soon rebound, as they’d done after previous downturns.<\/p>\n

But then the economy recovered \u2014 and birth rates just kept falling.<\/p>\n