What if we stopped talking about falling birth rates, and started talking about the fertility gap instead? Fertility rates are not always the result of free choice. Even in the most advanced, liberal countries, we're still far from a full reproductive agency. And demographic anxiety blurs our focus from the true crisis – meeting people’s family aspirations. We should, instead, start taking into account the many barriers that prevent people from starting a family.

The film “Joy” is based on the true story behind the conception of IVF – "in vitro fertilisation”. It stars Bill Nighy as obstetrician Patrick Steptoe, James Norton as biologist Robert Edwards, and Thomasin McKenzie as embryologist nurse Jean Purdy, the "triad" that invented IVF. In 2010 Edwards and Steptoe were awarded the Nobel Prize for Medicine for this extraordinary outcome; Purdy, on the other hand, remained in the shade for far too long.

The falling birth rate is a huge issue of our time. What's the most effective way to tackle it? The Economist's answer in a Toolkit

Delaying parenthood is becoming increasingly common: Oxford's professor Melinda Mills focus on the policies that could reverse the trend.

Putting the birth rate at the centre of public discourse from a secular standpoint: Eleonora Voltolina's TEDx talk “The Fertility Gap”