Earlier this month, I went for a day’s diving in Thailand. Obviously, it is the time spent beneath the waves that draws me to this beautiful pastime, but over the years I have also enjoyed meeting many different people from around the world while bouncing along in boats to the dive sites. My “buddy” this time was a chatty 35-year-old nurse practitioner from Texas and at one point our discussion turned to her thoughts on finding a partner. She admitted to ambivalence – liking the idea of sharing her life with a man, yet equally reluctant to compromise on a contented lifestyle she had built with her dog and successful career if he turned out to be a drudge or slob.

Her words, reflecting hesitancy over forming relationships, captured the roots of a crisis reshaping our world as fertility rates tumble and societies age fast. She was on holiday from the United States, which has just released data showing its birth rate at another record low, down almost a quarter in two decades, with women now averaging fewer than 1.6 children. Her family came from China, the other global superpower, which has far lower fertility rates. I am from a nation with birth rates also at a record low of 1.39 per woman. We were talking in Thailand, which has a fertility rate of 0.9 – less than half the level needed to keep a population stable – yet has seen life expectancy surge 25 years over my lifetime.

Soon Britain, China, Thailand and the US – like many other places – will be “super-aged societies” with one in five citizens aged over 65. In........

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