Soon, a world of old people

In March, in Pagliara dei Marsi, the birth of a little girl, the first in thirty years in this Abruzzo village, became a symbol in Italy, which has been plunged for several years into a deep demographic crisis. “Her baptism, in the church right in front of her house, brought together the whole village, cats included. The presence of a baby here is so rare that Lara has become the main tourist attraction. It is because his birth is a symbol of hope… writes Angela Giuffrida in the report of Guardian which opens our file this week.

Italy is not the only country where the fertility rate is collapsing. The phenomenon is global. With the exception of sub-Saharan Africa, we are witnessing a collapse in the birth rate everywhere. Even France, which until then was an exception in Europe, is affected. Not since the First World War have the French had so few children, according to the INSEE report published in January. And for the first time since the Second World War, the natural balance is negative: in 2025, there were 6,000 more deaths than births in France.

Faced with these figures, the French government announced a plan aimed at combating the fall in fertility, including sending a letter to people aged 29 to make them aware of the issue. Stupor in the foreign press. “Who can imagine, in all rationality, that I would give birth when I barely have enough to support my own?†Lydia Spencer-Elliott was surprised in February, in a scathing post published by The Independent et translated on our site, where she denounced a “injonction à faire des bébés†which in no way regulates the “real problems†which discourages having children.

This is the whole problem that runs through our file. If hope returned with the birth of Lara (and a generous bonus for her parents) in Pagliara dei Marsi, nothing says that the little girl will be able to go to school near her home nor that other children could be born nearby, due to lack of schools or maternity wards. The birth crisis is a vicious circle that feeds itself: for lack of children, schools empty or close; Due to a lack of schools, potential parents are hesitant to have children.

In Asia, where birth control has long been advocated so as not to slow down economic development, countries still emerging like Vietnam, India and Indonesia are radically changing their strategy. “Certain Asian governments, worried by the prospect of demographic decline, are considering once again encouraging large families, a sign of a new 180-degree turnaround†, explain Nikkei Asia. Because this gradual shift requires all societies and economic policies to reinvent themselves, to adapt to the aging of their population.

“Will we be the country that becomes old before it becomes rich? Assuming that he becomes one one day… Rose Fres Fausto is alarmed in The Philippine Star. “The demographic dividend – the moment when the working-age population begins to outnumber the population it supports – is not a guarantee of economic development†, recalls the economist.

In our file, beyond the observation, we offer you a world tour of the parades developed by everyone, some to boost the birth rate, some to deal with an increasingly older population. If Costa Rica is banking on the seniors’ economy, China is counting on robots to take care of them, while Thailand wants to put them to work. In South Korea, the small district of Hwacheon has relied on a vast educational support system to boost the birth rate. And it seems that it works. More dubious, in Russia, the Ministry of Education is proposing to re-establish school discotheques, supposed to encourage meetings…

Instead of panicking, recalls Simon Kuper in the Financial Times, it might be time to learn the lessons of history. What if this collapse, basically, made it possible to make our world more livable by promoting better sharing of wealth? What if it was also synonymous with a new beginning, with progress? Something to think about before considering too quickly a demographic rearmament.

Also read in this issue

These migrants that Trump is deporting to unknown countries around the world

Donald Trump’s United States is multiplying agreements to send, at a high price, immigrants to countries where they have absolutely no ties. Many find themselves held in poor conditions, often even on another continent, says USA Today, who collected the testimony of one of them.

The giant frogs attack France
Revolt at Grasset, alert for UGC then storm in the world of cinema: the extent of Vincent Bolloré’s media empire in France continues to fuel fears. One year before the presidential election, the Breton billionaire has triggered a cultural war which focuses above all on the identity of the country and on a certain French Catholicism, analysis The time.

Mali: between rebels and jihadists, the fragility of an alliance of circumstance

On April 25, in just a few hours, the Azawad Liberation Front (FLA) and the Support Group for Islam and Muslims (Jnim, affiliated with Al-Qaeda) coordinatedly inflicted severe setbacks on the Malian army and its Russian allies of the Africa Corps. Tama Média traces, through unpublished sources and rare testimonies, the genealogy of this unexpected alliance between northern rebels and armed jihadists.

Why the announced oil shock has not (yet) happened

Since February 28 and the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, the disruption in hydrocarbon supplies has weighed on the world economy, and particularly on poor countries. But the predicted catastrophe did not turn into a recession. Thanks to policies to support and limit consumption and the diversification of energy, explains The Wall Street Journal.

In Comuna 13, in MedellÃn, an urban transformation in trompe-l’Å“il

The Colombian city, former stronghold of Pablo Escobar, has reinvented itself as a tourist destination. But on the heights of La Escombrera, in the district of Comuna 13, this transformation shows its limits, notes the site New Lines Magazine. The influx of visitors has chased away neither the gangs nor the ghosts of a painful past.