Back in the early 1970s when he was lead singer with the Faces, few of his fans would have expected Rod Stewart to be still belting out Maggie May at Glastonbury more than half a century later. Long gone are the days when rock stars hoped to die before they got old. Instead, 80-year-old rock stars symbolise the fact that Britain and other developed economies have ageing populations. Women are having children later in life and having fewer of them.

Politicians are starting to fret about the prospect of a decreasing number of people of working age supporting an ever-increasing number of pensioners. Just this week, the education secretary, Bridget Phillipson, said the falling birthrate had “worrying repercussions” and that she hoped to be able to make it easier for women to have children.

This might seem a curious concern given that the UK’s population has risen from fewer than 60 million at the turn of the millennium to 67.2 million by 2022 and is expected to rise by another 5 million by 2032. Yet the fertility rate in England and Wales – the number of live births per woman – is currently 1.44, the lowest since records began in 1938 and well below the 2.1 level consistent with a stable population. If that trend continues and net migration is reduced, the number of people in the UK will eventually start to decline.

So much is obvious. Less clear is what, if anything, policymakers should do to raise fertility rates. The answer may........

© The Guardian