Ok, we changed the title to the subtitle.

Birth rate. I don't know why this article is using fertility here.

"Fertility rate" and "birth rate" are related, but used to mean different things.

Observe that the first thing wikipedia says in the entries for both topics is, "Not to be confused with" the other.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Total_fertility_rate https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Birth_rate

My thought was that maybe this was a difference between British English and American English, so I looked up the word "fertility" in the Cambridge Dictionary.

It turns out that while the dialects share roughly the same first definition ("(of animals and plants) the quality of being able to produce young or fruit:"), British English has a second definition: "(of land) the quality of producing a large number of good quality crops".

In that sense, I can see why they used the word. They sort of invented a new definition, "the quality of producing a large number of good quality humans."

https://dictionary.cambridge.org/us/dictionary/english/ferti...

i think the word "rate" makes it clear they are not talking about just "fertility".

But haven't sperm levels in men dropped drastically since then as well?

Yes, but that is not really why the birth rate is dropping. The cause is that more women are choosing (who can choose, really) to not have children, or to have fewer children.

And logistically, there wasn't really widespread access to reliable birth control before 1950.

Citation needed. As far as I know that is a wingnut paranoia point and not supported by the data.

Edit: Looks like I've been missing the story on this one.

Interesting that the articles all talk about obesity, unknown chemicals, brief style underwear, and whatnot as a possible cause without stopping to consider that maybe societal attitudes towards masturbation may play a role.

Here's one after a 10 second google for "sperm rates in men"

https://www.vox.com/science-and-health/2018/9/17/17841518/lo...

The takeaway: https://i.imgur.com/RhrrNI2.png

> sperm rates in women remain constant

NYT: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/16/health/male-sperm-count-p...

LS: https://www.livescience.com/22694-global-sperm-count-decline...

nyt is wingnut? https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/25/style/sperm-count.html

This article displays pretty much all that is wrong with the reporting on this. A lot of talk about vaguely related sensational commentary, very little on the practical significance (if any).

This is just an well established fact. Sperm count in industrialized nations have dropped considerably over decades.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/1393072

Uh, no.

https://www.npr.org/2017/07/31/539517210/sperm-counts-plumme...

Really? Masturbation? Come on.

Just as plausible as any of the other theories they put forth in those articles. Lots of shoulder shrugs from what I saw.

Title should read fertility rate.

Updated, thanks.

"Remarkable decline in conception of new human life since 1950"

That wouldn’t work either as the population has increased dramatically since 1950.