> the theory does not appear to be true. The data simply do not support it.

I'm not sure what the point of this article is.

It wasn't long ago when most of the public seemed absolutely convinced that the world is "overpopulated" and "unsustainable" and that it was absolutely urgent and incumbent on everyone to do their part to depopulate the world, somehow, some way. The overpopulation hypothesis was used to advance many policies.

There was a small minority who insisted that overpopulation was a myth, and that we shouldn't be worried about it. And it seemed that without any fuss, most thinkpieces have come around to this view that now the TFR rates are dropping irreversibly and precipitously, and also that these drops are pretty bad news for the economy in particular.

It's like all the global heating denialists and the global cooling true believers got together and accepted global warming as truth, all of a sudden.

Trying to turn the blame on "men" is just icing on the cake, chef kiss, well done Atlantic!