A drop in US births due to smartphone use? These researchers say so.
Source: USA TODAY
The arrival of the iPhone nearly 20 years ago may have had a direct impact on declining birth rates, a new study argues.
The working study, which was published by the National Bureau of Economic Research but has not undergone peer review, claims the dissemination of iPhones starting in 2007 helps explains a 33% to 52% decline in the U.S. birth rate among women ages 15 to 44.
The study was done by Caitlin Myers, a Middlebury College economics professor, and her stepson, Ezekiel Hooper, a 2025 Middlebury College graduate. It focuses on where iPhones were available upon their launch between 2007 and 2011, when AT&T was the exclusive carrier for the smartphone. They then analyzed the birth rates, by county, in those areas.
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