There is a serious crisis.
Stores are overflowing with baby diapers.
Doctors and nurses are in a panic.
Teachers breathe a sigh of relief.
What single event could cause all of these seemingly unrelated events to happen simultaneously?
The answer is no babies being born for an entire year.
We are going to explore the ramifications of such an event and what it would mean for
the future.
Things would be crazy for a bit, and there would be some societal changes, but a year
without any newborns might not be quite as bad as you might think.
Before we dive into overstocked baby diapers and infant toys, let’s examine some key
statistics to get a better grasp on what a year without babies would mean for the population
of the world.
For this hypothetical scenario, let's assume that the last baby to be born for an entire
year was brought into the world on December 31, 2023, at 11:59 p.m.
From January 1st, 2024, 12:00 a.m. to December 31, 2024, 11:59 p.m., there will be no babies
born.
This means for exactly 365 days, no new human life will arise on planet Earth.
Scientists and doctors knew something was wrong long before this moment in time, however.
In fact, the problems began approximately 9 months ago.
It would be around March of 2023 that obstetrician-gynecologists, or OB/GYNs, would first notice something was
wrong.
At this point, there would be a drastic decrease in the number of new patients showing signs
of pregnancy.
For the first few days, doctors might just think it's a fluke, but as they consult with
their colleagues and no one has received a newly pregnant patient, alarm bells would
start to go off.
Tests would be done, experts would gather to discuss the phenomenon, and the scientific
community would come to the shocking conclusion that no new babies would be born in 2024.
People would panic and couples planning on starting families across the world will have
their hearts broken, but there’s a happy ending to this story; it will just take some
time.
9 months after the medical community realized that something was wrong, the world would
experience the first day in recent human history when a baby isn’t born.
The question then becomes, what effects would this phenomenon have on the world’s population?
As of right now, there are approximately 8,045,311,000 on planet Earth.
To put this number into perspective, let's go back in time.
Between 10,000 BCE and 0 CE the human population grew from around 4 million to approximately
190 million people.
By the year 1900, there were around 1.9 billion people on the planet.
But this was when things got a little out of control.
74 years later, the world population doubled to 4 billion.
In 1987 humanity hit 5 billion, in 1999: 6 billion, 2011: 7 billion, and only 12 years
later, in the year 2023, there are over 8 billion people on Earth.
Needless to say, the rapid population growth and the need for energy and resources to support
such a large population have put a huge strain on our planet.
That being said, we are nowhere near Earth’s carrying capacity.
The problem is overconsumption in certain parts of the world where huge quantities of
food, resources, and water are being used up.
It’s also because of overconsumption that enormous amounts of waste, pollution, and
greenhouse gasses are destroying ecosystems and changing the climate.
Household final consumption expenditure is a measurement used to represent a country’s
consumer spending habits.
Households in the United States are projected to consume around $18.5 trillion dollars worth
of goods and services in 2023.
The European Union has the second-highest consumption rate at around 8.7 trillion dollars.
Even though these two parts of the world are less populated and growing slower than other
regions, they are consuming much more than their fair share of the world's resources.
In 2022, 134.22 million babies were born.
In 2021 approximately 693,000 babies were born in Oceania, 9.71 million babies were
born in Latin America, 4.10 million in North America, 6.88 million in Europe, 45.37 million
in Africa, and 67.23 million babies were born in Asia.
So, it’s clear that more babies are born in some parts of the world than in others.
But as stated before, this doesn’t necessarily mean those regions are where overconsumption
is happening.
On average, 367,726,270 babies are born every day.
That is 15,322 births an hour, 255 in a minute, or 4.25 babies every second.
That’s a lot of babies, which is why the population has been increasing since the dawn
of humanity.
If no babies were born for one whole year, the population would obviously decline, as
just because there are no births doesn’t mean there won’t be any deaths.
60.95 million people are expected to die in 2024, or around 167,000 people a day.
Since there won’t be any new births to offset this number, the world population will decline
to around 7,984,361,000 by the beginning of 2025.
Once people start popping out babies again, it won’t take long for the human species
to reach the 8 billion mark again.
Before we discuss what the world would look like during the year without babies, we would
be remiss if we didn’t mention that 3 months into 2024, people would start getting pregnant
again.
This is because 9 months later, it would be 2025, and babies would once again be crying
in hospitals as they are brought into the world.
It’s hard to predict people’s reactions to a full year without babies.
Some might find it nice as there would certainly be fewer crying infants in restaurants and
on planes.
Others would be in big trouble as certain industries rely on a constant flow of newborns
to keep business going.
In this scenario, we are assuming that births stop due to some unknown phenomena, but doctors
quickly discover they will resume the following year.
Because if women stopped getting pregnant unexpectedly and there was no explanation,
there would be mass hysteria.
Doctors and scientists would scramble to figure out what was going on as doomsayers declared
that the end of times had begun.
But let’s go with the premise that the world population can keep its cool during this time,
and everyone knows that birth rates will return to normal the following year.
What would happen to those people and industries that rely on newborn babies and their futures?
Let’s start with where it all begins, the maternity ward.
As mentioned before, the first people to know that anything was wrong with pregnancy rates
wouldn’t be the parents but the doctors.
Since the normal length of time it takes a couple to get pregnant can be as long as a
year, many parents-to-be might just chalk up their lack of success to biology or bad
luck.
However, since OB/GYNs see pregnant women almost daily, they would notice the lack of
pregnancies much quicker.
OB/GYNs, in particular, would still have plenty to do with expecting mothers up until the
very last baby was born.
Then some changes would need to be made.
After that final baby is sent home, maternity wards, neonatal ICUs, and delivery rooms could
all be repurposed to create more room in the hospital for other patients.
The nurses and doctors that have dedicated their lives to ensuring patients have safe
deliveries would need to migrate into different fields.
Since doctors and nurses are always in high demand, this shouldn’t be too much of a
problem.
Pediatricians would still have babies, infants, and children to conduct checkups on from previous
years, but their load might be lightened slightly by the gap year when no babies were born.
Some doctors and nurses may find themselves moving into general practices and enjoying
it.
They would be helping a whole different demographic of patients, but this may be as rewarding
as their previous job.
This could actually develop into a major problem in the future when babies start being born
again.
In 2025 when pregnant mothers pour into delivery rooms, hospitals could find themselves short-staffed
in maternity wards.
New graduates who would have gone into delivery positions likely sought work in other fields
as there would be no maternity jobs at the time they graduated.
Also, some of the doctors and nurses who left working in maternity may be happy where they
are and not come back.
This would lead to a staffing crisis across the world and could cause higher infant mortality
rates than in previous years.
Then again, the nurses and doctors who needed to shift their practices may be looking forward
to getting back to their original professions, and there might be no problem convincing doctors
and nurses to return to maternity wards.
Either way, there would be a whole year that entire sections of hospitals across the world
would either remain empty or be converted to different specialties while no babies were
being born.
Then there are schools.
If no babies were born in 2024, business would continue as usual in the millions of schools
across the world.
However, by 2029 some changes would need to be made.
5 years after no babies were born and the missing generation would have been ready to
start school, kindergarten classes would be eerily empty.
There would undoubtedly be small cohorts of children who started school late or early
in life that would be in kindergarten at this time, as well as students who were held back
for developmental reasons, so kindergarten classrooms wouldn’t be completely empty.
However, the vast majority of schools would need to re-assign their kindergarten teachers
to other grades.
It’s unlikely that educators would be laid off as teacher unions would have had 5 years
to secure a deal with school districts to keep their members in the classroom.
And since no one could have predicted or prevented the no-baby phenomenon, teachers can’t be
punished for the low class sizes.
This same missing class scenario would happen for the next 12 years.
In 2035 6th grade classes would be empty, 3 years later, there would be very few freshmen
in high school.
The graduating class of 2041 would only consist of a handful of scholars.
Each year that teachers were supposed to teach the missing class, they could be reassigned
to other grades or could teach smaller sections of their primary subject.
Instead of 35 kids being crammed into a classroom, the extra teachers could be utilized to bring
class sizes down.
That being said, the teachers could also be given a sabbatical for the year that they
were supposed to be teaching the missing cohort.
This could allow teachers to improve their practice and stay up to date on recent educational
research.
Colleges might suffer between 2041 and 2045 as admissions would be lower than in the past
due to a whole year’s worth of students not attending higher ed institutions, but
their numbers would eventually bounce back.
It would be an odd time for school teachers and institutions, but it would not be that
difficult to adapt without having to lay off an entire grade's worth of teachers every
year.
Baby product companies would definitely have a rough year in 2024 if no infants were born.
It wouldn’t cause major corporations like Johnson and Johnson, Pampers, or Gerber to
go out of business, but it would have some detrimental effects on their bottom line.
Since there would be no indication that 2024 was going to be a vastly different year in
terms of product sales until 8 to 9 months prior, companies likely would have already
begun manufacturing their products as usual.
This means there would be a surplus of diapers, pacifiers, and baby food on the shelves of
every store.
This isn’t such a bad thing, as many baby products, such as onesies, have a long shelf
life.
However, companies that specialize in baby formula may have to destroy some of their
unused product as it would not last until the following year when babies were once again
being born.
It’s likely that smaller companies that specialize in baby commodities would find
themselves underwater as demand for their goods and services would be greatly diminished
in 2024.
This may lead to some companies filing for bankruptcy or being acquired by larger businesses.
Then again, governments around the world could offer supplemental funding and bailouts since
this would be a short-term problem.
Regardless of how companies coped in 2024, 2025 would see business return to normal levels.
It’s worth noting that most companies would lay off workers to help them weather the storm.
There would still be some cash coming in as infants from 2023 would still need baby products,
but sales numbers would be significantly lower than in previous years.
Certain goods, such as baby food, could be repurposed as it is high in nutrients.
This source of sustenance could hypothetically be used to supplement the diets of elderly
adults until new babies were born.
It would be a difficult time for economies around the world, and certain businesses would
probably not make it through a year with no babies, but the majority of bigger corporations
would be able to cope.
After women started becoming pregnant again in March of 2024, it would be clear that things
were going to return to normal in 2025.
This would result in companies rehiring laid-off employees to ramp up production for the return
to normalcy.
So, in reality, many businesses would only suffer for the 3-month gap when there was
no sign that any new babies would be born between January and March of 2024.
What all of this means is that a year without babies might not be as bad as you’d expect.
There would definitely be panic until doctors and scientists figured out what was going
on, but once a female became pregnant and 9 months later gave birth on January 1, 2025,
people would look back on 2024 as just a weird anomaly.
The slight decrease in population would barely make a dent in demographics around the world,
but it could alleviate some of the strain we are putting on our planet for a short amount
of time.
Economies would almost certainly go into decline until it became clear that the time period
of no babies being born was just a fluke and things would return to normal the following
year.
The decline in population from a single year of no babies would be about .75%, so it would
be a relatively insignificant dip in the grand scheme of things.
Possibly the most important thing to come out of a year with no babies is the advancement
of research that would result from trying to understand the phenomena.
Doctors and scientists would be working around the clock to figure out what was going on.
This could lead to major advances in fertility research, our understanding of the human body,
and medicine.
There would likely be unforeseen benefits and discoveries made from the research conducted
to understand why no babies were being born.
When you really think about it, a year without babies wouldn’t be so bad.
There would be some disheartened people who wanted to start a family but couldn’t, layoffs
in certain industries, and societal panic, but in the long run, a year without any babies
wouldn’t have much of an effect on anything.
The population around the world would rebound almost immediately, and all of the jobs and
companies affected by no babies being born in 2024 would eventually recover.
All in all, this phenomenon would end up being a footnote in history books, and things would
return to normal soon after the first baby of 2025 was born.
Now watch “50 Insane Facts About the Female Body.”
Or check out “What Happens to Your Body When You Start Exercising?”