Stephen Shaw

Well, they've got the triple whammy going on.

what has happened is not only has the age of motherhood now reached nearly 33 years old, that's for first child, it's reached so late that the likelihood of a woman ever becoming a mother in South Korea is now less than 50%.

Only 45% of women there ever become mothers.

And the extra challenge they now have, because it's happening so late,

40% of women there only have one child.

Usually it's around 20% of most nations.

Even neighboring Japan, it's around 20%.

So not only is incredibly unlikely now for a woman to have a child in South Korea, it's more and more likely that she'll only have one.

Uh, this is every culture you research and even Southern India now has birth rates as low as 1.6, the same as the U S and has been at that level.

Nope.

Uh, well, do you know, I, I get to, you know, I'm lucky I get to speak in places around the world.

I get to meet governments around the world.

And I've been to the Middle East three times in the past year with governments deeply worried about the rapid falling birth rates in the Middle East.

So what's the common link?

Because you're not too far.

Well, to be honest with you, you were really right.

We've lost something in all communities.

And what is it driven by?

Perhaps innocently, perhaps otherwise.

We have turned our 20s into a decade of education, education, education, without thinking about family, future family.