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South Korea's Fertility Rate Has Ticked Up — The Demographic Damage Is Already Structural
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South Korea's Fertility Rate Has Ticked Up — The Demographic Damage Is Already Structural

South Korea's total fertility rate of 0.74 in 2023 — the lowest ever recorded for a sovereign state — has shown a tentative uptick. The recovery, if sustained, will not prevent the demographic trajectory already locked in. The signal is in what an extreme case reveals about the mechanisms affecting all OECD societies.

Leila FarahaniMarch 18, 2026
The Fertility Collapse Is Structural, Not Cyclical
Family

The Fertility Collapse Is Structural, Not Cyclical

Fertility rates in OECD countries have declined below replacement in ways that natalist policy has consistently failed to reverse — the mechanism is a structural shift in educated women's aspirational models.

Catherine Olowe8 min
The Invisible Economy of Care
Family

The Invisible Economy of Care

Americans provide approximately 36 billion hours of unpaid care annually. This labor underpins the entire formal economy. Its invisibility in economic accounting is a choice with political consequences.

Sofia Reyes11 min
The Marriage Recession
Family

The Marriage Recession

Americans are not rejecting marriage. They are deferring it, reconsidering it, and, in growing numbers, simply not getting around to it. The causes are economic. The consequences are cultural and demographic.

Sofia Torres11 min
The Birth Rate Collapse Is a Signal, Not a Problem
Family

The Birth Rate Collapse Is a Signal, Not a Problem

Every wealthy country is having fewer children than needed to sustain its population. The policy responses have largely failed. Understanding why reveals something important about what people actually want.

Sarah Chen12 min
What Parents Owe
Family

What Parents Owe

American parenting culture has raised the bar of what a 'good parent' looks like to impossible heights. This is not good for parents. It is not clearly good for children. It is very good for a market that profits from parental anxiety.

Sofia Torres10 min
The Loneliness Epidemic Has No Political Solution
Family

The Loneliness Epidemic Has No Political Solution

Americans have never been more socially isolated, and every proposed solution misunderstands the problem. What loneliness is actually telling us about modern life.

Sarah Chen12 min