Countries with Lowest Fertility Rate (2026)

How Many Countries Are Below Replacement Fertility?

117 countries currently have fertility rates below the replacement level of 2.1 births per woman. Macau has the lowest at 0.59, followed by South Korea (0.72) and Hong Kong (0.75). At these rates, each generation is roughly 72% smaller than the previous one before accounting for immigration.

Why Has Fertility Fallen So Low?

East Asia and Europe are home to most low-fertility countries. In East Asia, rapid fertility decline is associated with economic development, high costs of child-rearing, intensive education cultures, and changing social norms around marriage. In Europe, even generous welfare states have not prevented fertility from falling well below replacement.

Governments have tried various approaches: cash payments for births, extended parental leave, subsidized childcare. Results have been mixed — no country has successfully reversed a sustained fertility decline through policy alone.

Long-Term Consequences of Low Fertility

Fewer births mean a smaller future workforce, slower economic growth, and increasing strain on pension and healthcare systems. Immigration partially offsets low fertility in many countries, but immigrants tend to adopt the fertility patterns of their destination country within a generation.