New study links iPhone access to falling US birth rates, claiming smartphones may have influenced fertility trends. Photo: AI
Will you throw your iPhone away if you come to know that it can be responsible for the declining fertility? Well, a new research paper makes similar claims. According to a paper published by the National Bureau of Economic Research, fertility rates have declined by 22 percent since 2007 in the US. iPhone was also introduced in the same year. iPhone was available to subscribers of AT&T only in the US until 2011 from 2007. The research has found an alarming relationship between iPhone access and decreasing fertility rates. To prove the claim, the researchers compared the birth rates in counties with near-universal AT&T coverage to those in counties with little or none in the four years since the first iPhone’s release.
According to the researchers, the teen births declined by 13.8 percent in the counties without AT&T coverage, while a steeper decline of 18.9 percent was witnessed in counties with limited coverage and 26 percent in counties with near-universal coverage.
The research also shows that the women in their twenties showed a 10 percent decrease in birth rate in counties having no coverage. Counties with extensive coverage showed a decline of 14.6 per cent.
Women in 30s:
Counties without AT&T coverage: birth rate increased by 3.8 per cent
Counties with extensive coverage: birth rate rose by 3.8 per cent
The research also claims that iPhone access reduced births by 4.5 to eight per cent among those aged 15 to 19, and by 3.2 to 6.6 per cent among those aged 20 to 24.
Researchers cite three reasons saying that the iPhone acts as an unofficial contraceptive:
iPhone use reduces in-person interactions
iPhone provides access to information about contraception
More access to abortion and pornography
“We do not claim that the iPhone is the sole cause of the post-2007 decline (but) our estimates imply that the introduction of the modern smartphone played a sizable role in the decline in U.S. births,” the researchers say.
There is another study that claims the impact of iPhones on fertility is not limited to US but has a global repercussion. A study by University of Cincinnati economists explored the topic of smartphone penetration and teenage fertility rates in 128 countries. The researchers used World Bank data and found that adult activities are directly related to internet usage.
Also Read: Apple To Launch Three Phones In September Except iPhone 18
Zubair Amin is a Senior Journalist at NewsX with over seven years of experience in reporting and editorial work. He has written for leading national and international publications, including Foreign Policy Magazine, Al Jazeera, The Economic Times, The Indian Express, The Wire, Article 14, Mongabay, News9, among others. His primary focus is on international affairs, with a strong interest in US politics and policy. He also writes on West Asia, Indian polity, and constitutional issues. Zubair tweets at zubaiyr.amin
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