America’s Fertility Crisis Has Astonishing New Link to iPhones, Study Finds

According to a recent study by the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER), the real cause of the declining birth rate may be sitting in our pockets — the iPhone.

Detailed in the research paper, Caitlin K. Myers and Ezekiel Hooper investigated the connection between the release of the smartphone in 2007 and the overall decrease in fertility that started the same year.

“The U.S. general fertility rate has fallen by 22% since 2007, a sustained decline not readily explained by economic conditions, contraceptive use, housing or childcare costs, or other commonly cited factors,” Myers and Hooper wrote. “We assess the potential role of a different shock: the diffusion of the smartphone.”

The first rollout of the modern smartphone was initially offered only through AT&T. This allowed them to “identify its effect from variation” based on the company’s coverage. When compared, the fertility decline was observed across all age groups from June 2007 to February 2011.

“Studies imply that access to the iPhone reduced births by 4.5–8.0% at ages 15–19 and 3.2–6.6% at ages 20–24, with statistically significant but smaller declines among older cohorts,” the two stated in the paper.

When performing the same analysis with pre-2011 Sprint and Verizon coverage, the numbers had no correlation, strengthening the argument of the iPhone acting as a new form of birth control. 

Myers and Hooper credit several factors within phone usage for the major impact on the birth rate decrease.

“Overall, the diffusion of the iPhone explains 33–52% of the decline in the general fertility rate among women aged 15–44,” Myers and Hooper concluded in the paper. “National-survey evidence on time use and sexual behavior is consistent with the iPhone reducing in-person interactions, increasing pornography use, and reducing sexual frequency.”

With the advancements of technology we see day by day, there is proof now that it may hinder the population of our country.