The coastal city of Brighton is well known for many reasons: its famous Pier and historic seafront, home to political party conferences and a vibrant LGBT community.
In 2021, the city was named one of the top 10 places to raise a family in Britain – not surprising given the range of beautiful parks and outstanding schools.
Yet despite its family-friendly status, fewer and fewer people are choosing to start a family in Brighton.
The city is suffering a serious decline in the number of children being born each year, with annual births declining by a third over the last two decades, from around 3,100 to 2,100 each year.
Brighton now has one of the lowest birth rates in the whole of the country, with the average woman having just 0.97 children (compared to a UK-wide total fertility rate (TFR) of 1.39).
For reference, a TFR of 2.1 is required for a stable population.
This week, I visited Brighton with GB News to find out why the seaside town has become one of the capitals of Britain’s baby bust.
Throughout the day I spoke to a range of people on the iconic seafront, from local parents and grandparents to charity workers, faith leaders, population experts and politicians.
Many told me that Brighton’s eye-watering high house prices were making it impossible for families to afford a home.
Local Councillor Carole Theobald explained how the construction of high-rise flats in the town has increased the number of properties, but that these new apartments are totally unsuitable for families.
It is frequently said that young people just don’t want to become parents any more, but Claudia Rurlander, Senior Researcher at the CSJ told GB News that this is not the case.
Research shows that the majority of young women do want to become mothers, and most want two or three children.
But there are many barriers to overcome.
Soaring property prices are certainly a problem, but there are others.
Local mums Lisa and Emma told me about their struggles with fertility and the importance of affordable and available treatments.
Yet the Director of the Centre for Family and Education, Peter Brookes, explained that, although IVF can seem like an important option for some individuals, it shouldn’t be seen as a reliable insurance policy against infertility, since treatments are often unsuccessful, especially for women over the age of 35.
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The best way to maximise the chances of becoming pregnant is for couples to start trying for a family at a younger age, since female fertility declines steadily from the early 20s, rather than ‘falling off a cliff’ in the late 30s as is commonly believed.
We heard that worries about climate change and the future of the world are discouraging some young people from having children, as are concerns about finding a partner and the willingness or otherwise of young men to commit to becoming fathers.
Other locals commented that Brighton’s large LGBT population was a cause of low birth rates.
Although this may be a factor in the city’s falling fertility, there are other places in the UK – Cambridge and Islington, for example – with even lower birth rates, suggesting that other factors are more significant.
The future consequences of this nationwide baby bust will be severe.
Each generation is going to be significantly smaller than the one before, causing shortages in labour and goods, pushing up prices and preventing economic growth.
With fewer and fewer working-age people to support those who are retired, taxes will have to rise significantly.
But falling birth rates are not just a problem for the future.
Lloyd Cummins, from the Brighton and Hove City Mission, told GB News that three primary schools in deprived areas of Brighton have already been forced to close due to a shortage of pupils.
Falling birth rates can certainly be blamed on economic factors, and the consequences of the baby bust will be economic too.
Yet perhaps there are wider, more philosophical influences at play.
Tim Jones, of Brighton and Hove Faith in Action, told us that he believes a decline in the value that society places on children has been a major cause of falling family formation, as has the weakening of the social and community bonds that used to play a crucial role in sharing the burden of raising children beyond the nuclear family.
Demographic decline is one of the most difficult challenges facing Western nations.
Apart from Israel, all developed countries now have below-replacement birth rates, meaning that populations across the world are ageing steadily.
In extreme cases, like in South Korea, for example, the population is expected to shrink by an astonishing 75 per cent by the end of the century.
Different countries are experimenting with different solutions to the baby bust, including tax incentives, housing subsidies and benefits for young parents.
Whatever the answers to the crisis, the first step is to acknowledge its existence, something that we are barely beginning to do here in the UK.
But one thing is for sure: if treasured British cities like Brighton are to have any future at all, we must take the baby bust seriously.
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