Natalism

According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, the term, as it relates to the belief itself, dates from 1971 and comes from French: nataliste, formed from French: natalité, birthrate.

As a population decline is observed in many countries associated with ageing and cultural modernization, attempts at a political response are growing. According to the UN, the share of countries with pronatalist policies had grown from 20% in 2005 to 28% in 2019.

In recent decades, many countries have implemented pronatalist policies to counteract declining birth rates and aging populations. These policies often include financial incentives such as baby bonuses, tax breaks, and direct payments to families with children. However, experts note that financial incentives alone may be insufficient, and that factors such as work-family balance, cultural values, and societal support systems play significant roles in influencing birth rates.

Motives

Generally, natalism promotes child-bearing and parenthood as desirable for social reasons and to ensure the continuance of humanity. Some philosophers have noted that if humans fail to have children, humans would become extinct.

Religion

Many religions encourage procreation, and religiousness in members can sometimes correlate to higher rates of fertility. Judaism, Islam, and many branches of Christianity, including the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and the Catholic Church, encourage procreation. In 1979 one research paper indicated that Amish people had an average of 6.8 children per family. Among some conservative Protestants, the Quiverfull movement advocates for large families and views children as blessings from God.

Those who adhere to a more traditionalist framing may therefore seek to limit access to abortion and contraception, as well. The 1968 encyclical Humanae Vitae, for example, criticized artificial contraception and advocated for a natalist position.

Natalist views are also often driven by economic and political concerns, particularly in countries facing aging populations and declining birth rates. Governments may support pronatalist policies to sustain labor forces and social welfare systems.

Politics

Beginning around the early 2020s, the threat of "global demographic collapse" began to become a cause célèbre among wealthy tech and venture-capitalist circles as well as the political right. In Europe, former Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orbán made natalism a key plank of his political platform. In the United States, key figures include Kevin Dolan, organizer of the Natal Conference, Simone and Malcolm Collins, founders of Pronatalist.org, and Elon Musk, who has repeatedly used his public platform to discuss global birth rates.

The right-wing proponents of pronatalism argue that falling birthrates could lead to economic stagnation, diminished innovation, and an unsustainable burden on social systems due to an aging population. The movement suggests that without a significant increase in birth rates, the sustainability of civilizations could be in danger; Elon Musk has called it a "much bigger risk" than global warming.

Intention to have children

An intention to have children is a substantial fertility factor in actually ending up doing so, but childless individuals who intend to have children immediately or within two or three years are generally more likely to succeed than those who intend to have children in the long term. There are many determinants of the intention to have children, including:

• the preference of family size, which influences that of the children through early adulthood. Likewise, the extended family influences fertility intentions, with increased numbers of nephews and nieces increasing the preferred number of children. These effects may be observed in the case of Mormon or modern Israeli demographics.
• social pressure from kin and friends to have another child, such as overall cultural normativity.
• social support. However, a study from West Germany came to the conclusion that both men receiving no support at all and men receiving support from many different people have a lower probability of intending to have another child, with the latter probably related to coordination problems.
• happiness, with happier people tending to want more children. However, other research has shown that the social acceptability of the choice to have or not have children plays a significant factor in reproductive decisions. The social stigma, marginalization, and even domestic violence that accompanies those without children, by choice or chance, is a significant factor in their feelings of happiness or belonging within their communities.
• secure housing situation, and feeling of overall economic stability more generally.