Birthrates are rapidly declining across the West primarily due to economic factors. Over 163 million new lives emerged in 2025, far surpassing the 63 million deaths. The countries with the least tend to produce the most children. Over the past year, Angola, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Chad, and Somalia all experienced population growths around 2.5% to 3%.
In poor African nations, children are not a “lifestyle choice” or option for young parents. They are an economic necessity. There is no pension system you can rely on, no government safety net, and no guarantee of survival into old age. Children become labor, protection, and future security. When infant mortality is high, families have more children because statistically many will not survive.
This is why nations like Niger have a birth rate roughly five times that of any major European nation. Half of the population is under 15 and unable to work. The government is run by a military junta operating under a transnational charter, and the blatant corruption has caused Niger to be one of the poorest nations in the world by GDP per capita.
We see the same phenomenon out of many African nations that are then exploited by other nations. The same Western institutions that lecture about climate change and carbon footprints are simultaneously blocking industrialization, energy development, and infrastructure. You cannot tell a continent to stay poor for the sake of Net Zero and then act shocked when birth rates explode. Poverty plus insecurity always produces population growth.
There is a happy medium here. Spiking the population of Western nations through migration is not advantageous economically. Low birth rates in the West will contribute to future economic problems, but these nations with extremely high birth rates are face generational poverty in an environment where there is no option for economic freedom since these nations lack the basic infrastructure for a healthy, prosperous nation. These systems cannot be repaired through charity; a total overhaul and reconnection to the global economy would be a crucial first step.