Editor's Note: In the coming year, RANE will analyze the implications of shifting demographic trends around the world. This series will be published periodically throughout the remainder of 2026; you can find all parts here . Fertility rates dropping below replacement level — once confined to wealthy economies — have become a defining structural feature of the global system . Fertility is now well below the replacement level of 2.1 children per woman across Europe, East Asia and North America, with most advanced economies now clustered between roughly 1.2 and 1.6 children per woman and some, such as South Korea, experiencing far lower numbers.