When the future loses its voice | Science

Across many high-income societies, anxiety about demographic decline has become commonplace. Fertility rates have fallen below replacement level, populations are aging rapidly, and governments worry about labor shortages, pension sustainability, and the future of welfare systems. These concerns are legitimate. Yet the conventional narrative does not always capture another important consequence of declining birth rates: dejuvenation, the progressive reduction of the demographic, economic, cultural and political weight of younger generations in society. Although low fertility alone does not immediately transform institutions, the cumulative effect of decades of low births combined with rising longevity does. The result is a thinner presence of younger people in the labor market, in entrepreneurship and innovation, and in the democratic debates in which long-term priorities are contested.