Line #101 Main/ChildlessDystopia


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4	[[quoteright:350:[[VideoGame/HalfLife2 https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/CLDyst_2994.jpg]]]]
5	[[caption-width-right:350:[[BadNewsIrrelevantNews "...but I just saved a bundle on playground-maintenance by switching to Combine!"]]]]
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7	->''"As the sound of the playgrounds faded, the despair set in. Very odd, what happens in a world without children's voices."''
8	-->-- '''Miriam''', ''Film/ChildrenOfMen''
9
10	ChildrenAreInnocent ([[TroublingUnchildlikeBehavior Usually]].) ChildrenAreSpecial. Children [[CheerfulChild make us smile]] and [[InnocentInaccurate make us laugh]]. As adults grow older, ThinkOfTheChildren becomes a primary motivator for many things they do, because kids are how they FlingALightIntoTheFuture.
11
12	...[[DespairEventHorizon Unless that light is extinguished]].
13
14	Perhaps there was a SterilityPlague, {{Gendercide}}, or [[NiceJobBreakingItHerod Herod got a little overzealous]]; or maybe [[InvasionOfTheBabySnatchers they were all rounded up]] to [[PoweredByAForsakenChild power the phlebotinum generator]]. At any rate, life is now grey, dreary and pointless, since there's nobody to build a future for.
15
16	On the [[SlidingScaleOfIdealismVersusCynicism idealistic end of the scale]], it can be a temporary case of mass kidnapping, requiring nothing more than a few BigDamnHeroes to get them back. But if [[HarmfulToMinors the poor things are dead]] or breeding has simply been closed off as an option, you've fallen off the cynical end straight into [[CrapsackWorld New Crapsack, Halfemptia]] with plenty of {{Abandoned Playground}}s. Expect a rise in {{Straw Nihilist}}s, possibly spiraling into BombThrowingAnarchists and TerroristsWithoutACause. TheFundamentalist is likely to decide this is some sort of divine retribution, and [[ActivistFundamentalistAntics will be happy to explain why]]. TheAntiNihilist may try to find some reason to go on, but he's facing a serious uphill battle.
17
18	For the inverse of this trope, see TeenageWasteland.
19
20	'''NOTE:''' Do not confuse with HideYourChildren, where a VideoGame ''shows'' no children to prevent the player from running around murdering them. The game must explicitly spell out that all kids are dead or missing to qualify.
21
22	----
23	!!Examples:
24	[[foldercontrol]]
25
26	[[folder:Anime & Manga]]
27	* ''Anime/{{ICE\|2007}}'': All men died out, and HomosexualReproduction hasn't been invented, so the now all-female humanity is dying out, too.
28	* ''Anime/MonsterRancher'' has a {{Downplayed}} example in "Color Pandora, Guardian of the Forest". [[TheDreaded Stone Dragon]] took away all of the young and able-bodied color pandoras, leaving behind only the elderly, a single adult who avoided being captured with the rest of his peers, and a single child who was unlocked sometime after Stone Dragon's last visit. While the village has a secret sanctuary where they can unlock more of their kind, they're afraid to bring any more children into the world while Stone Dragon's still around.
29	* In ''Literature/SundayWithoutGod'', when people stopped being able to die, they also stopped being able to give birth, so with no new children being born in fifteen years the world's population has shrunk considerably. The only exceptions are twelve-year-old Ai, whose very birth is shrouded in mystery, and [[spoiler:Ulla's twin sister Celica, who was born fifteen years ago but because she was frozen in time, is still a baby]].
30	* In ''Manga/ZekkyouGakkyuu'', the end of the 'The Boyfriend Story'' chapter reveals that the global birth-rate is at 0 because of more people foregoing finding a partner and raising biological children, since the digital people they can create with a simple click are much easier to deal with.
31	[[/folder]]
32
33	[[folder:Comic Books]]
34	* ''ComicBook/{{Raptors}}'': Don Miguel, a very ancient and very evil vampire, has been devouring children so regularly that the streets of New York City are pretty much devoid of them.
35	* The ''ComicBook/JusticeLeague''[=/=]''Comicbook/YoungJustice'' storyline "World Without Grown-Ups" was, as the title suggests, a [[TeenageWasteland world without grown-ups]] along with a mirror-world without kids. It served as a {{Plot Tailored to\|TheParty}} [[Comicbook/{{Shazam}} Captain Marvel]] who could shuttle between the two being a biological adult in superpowered form and a kid in his normal one.
36	[[/folder]]
37
38	[[folder:Fairy Tales]]
39	* ''Literature/ThePiedPiperOfHamelin'' punishes the town for refusing to pay him by leading all their children away.
40	[[/folder]]
41
42	[[folder:Fan Works]]
43	* ''Fanfic/WithStringsAttached'':
44	** Whether Baravada is a utopia or a dystopia is debatable, but it certainly is nearly childless. Only two children are seen by the four while they're there, and one of them is actually [[spoiler:As'taris's mother Brox, reborn as a five-year-old boy after she was murdered for her... [[ItAmusedMe unique sense of humor]]]].
45	** The childless problem appears to have been solved in ''Fanfic/TheKeysStandAlone'' after the G'heddi'onians replace the tirin; there are plenty of kids around. However, one of the Geddies tells the four that the Baravadans (now known as the "Natives") are still not having children. At one point John speculates that too much magic makes people sterile, which would be why in ''With Strings Attached'' magic was forbidden in Ketafa.
46	[[/folder]]
47
48	[[folder:Films -- Animation]]
49	* ''WesternAnimation/TheEasterBunnyIsCominToTown'' features the adults-only city called Town, which oddly is ruled over by a child king and his older aunt. There's a subversion involved in that near the Town is the children-only city called Kidville.
50	[[/folder]]
51
52	[[folder:Films -- Live-Action]]
53	%%* Notably averted in the ''Film/MadMax'' franchise. Every film in the series has children involved. Excluding Max's daughter, children are more prominent in ''Film/MadMaxBeyondThunderdome'' and ''Film/MadMaxFuryRoad''.
54	* In ''Film/ChildrenOfMen'', almost all of humanity has been rendered sterile, and society has collapsed into violent chaos. Since the movie takes place in 2027, [[UnintentionalPeriodPiece the filmmakers apparently expected this to materialize only three years after its release]].
55	* The movie ''Film/{{Daybreakers}}'' strongly implies this for most of the population, as the vampires, who compose 95% of the population, do not age or procreate. Another 4% are humans kept as stock to produce blood to feed the other 95%. The other 1% may have kids, but they are hunted down relentlessly by the vampires (who need more blood).
56	* ''Film/ChittyChittyBangBang'' features a {{Ruritania}} in which the ChildHater rulers have actually outlawed children [[DisproportionateRetribution after one insulted the Baroness's appearance]]. It's not clear what the government does to the children, except that they're rounded up by the infamous "Child Catcher".
57	* In ''Film/IndianaJonesAndTheTempleOfDoom'', Indiana and his companions end up in an Indian village that had been raided by members of a [[ReligionOfEvil Thugee cult]] who had stolen the village's [[MacGuffin Sankara Stone]] and all the children.
58	* In ''Film/FreddysDeadTheFinalNightmare'', Freddy Krueger has managed to kill all the children ([[UnwittingPawn sans one]]) of Springwood, and now seeks to break out of the place to do it everywhere else.
59	[[/folder]]
60
61	[[folder:Literature]]
62	* ''Greybeard'', by Creator/BrianWAldiss, has a childless world caused by a SterilityPlague.[[note]]This was published decades before the somewhat similar ''Film/ChildrenOfMen'' (see above). Hence, [[ScifiGhetto there was a certain amount of irritation in the SF fan community when P.D. James was credited with having come up with a new and original idea by literary critics]].[[/note]]
63	* Early in ''[[Literature/TheBelgariad Belgarath the Sorcerer]]'', Belgarath encounters a camp populated entirely by old people. They turn out to be the people who refused to follow Gorim to Ulgo, and were cursed with sterility as a result. They're just waiting to die off, and Belgarath finds the winter he spent with them very depressing.
64	* New World in the ''Literature/ChaosWalking'' trilogy. Due to the fact that all the women in Prentisstown are dead, there hasn't been a child there in 13 years - not since the main character Todd was born.
65	* In Creator/PeterSBeagle's ''Literature/TheLastUnicorn'', a town has stopped having children ever since they heard a prophecy that one would bring down the king and end their prosperity. They live in dread of that day. At the end, after the old king has been brought down, the magician Schmendrick urges them to have children -- it might help.
66	* ''The Declaration Trilogy'' by Gemma Malley is set in a world where scientists have discovered life-extending drugs. However, a corrupt government is using the drugs to cling to power and prevent a younger generation from challenging them. Under the pretext of preventing overpopulation, strict laws have been passed, stating that no-one may reproduce unless they "Opt Out" of taking the drugs; even then, they are restricted to one child each. Any children born to parents who have not "Opted Out" (or who have "Opted Out" but already have a child) are labelled "Surpluses" and are taken away from their families to be raised in grim institutions. As very few people choose to "Opt Out", the result is a society where children, whether they were born legally or not, are greatly mistrusted.
67	* ''Ashes'' by Ilsa J. Bick has more of a "Teenager-less Dystopia". In this apocalyptic world, some sort of electromagnetic pulse turned most of the teens into [[ZombieApocalypse zombies]] and killed most adults. As a result, most of the survivors are the elderly or children under 12.
68	* In ''Literature/TheHandmaidsTale'' by Margaret Atwood, the nation of Gilead (Future-America) is so contaminated with chemicals and radiation that most people are sterile, and the births that do happen are usually "Un-Babies" with severe defects. As the misogynistic theocratic government of Gilead refuses to accept the concept of male sterility, the fault is put on "barren" women. The few remaining fertile women become [[SexSlave sex slaves]] for powerful men.
69	* Used to rare positive effect in the Erich Kästner novel ''Die Konferenz der Tiere'' ("The Animals' Conference") and the 1969 animated movie based on it[[hottip:*:incidentally the first full-length German animated film in color]], in which the animals decide that after entirely too many of the humans' peace talks and conferences have come to naught it's time for ''them'' to do something about it. After multiple appeals to reason and creative attempts at sabotage have failed to convince the stubborn humans to abolish war, the animals resort to taking the humans' (cooperative) children away from their "clearly unsuitable" parents by "abducting" them and hiding them in places where they can play safely with the animals looking after them -- and that finally does the trick.
70	* In ''Literature/{{A Song Of Ice And Fire}}'', the city of Asshai has no children. The reason for this is not given, but since Asshai is a place where the darkest of magics are practiced the implications are quite sinister.
71	* In ''First Lord's Fury'', the final entry in the Literature/CodexAlera, the Vord Queen offers the people of Alera the option to surrender peacefully and live out the remainder of their natural lives under her rule. The only requirement is that they not be allowed to sire any more children. Many Alerans take the offer in order to escape the current war, but the main characters recognize that this just means they die as a people in sixty years instead of tomorrow. It is compared to a death by strangulation; more peaceful than some other ways to die, but you are still just as dead. Towards the climax, when the Vord Queen offers Invidia Aquitaine the chance to rule the surrendered Alerans in her stead, Isana points out that all this means is she will have a few years of despotism over a pathetic group of childless, aging citizens before they all die.
72	* All children under a certain age are taken away in the Rapture at the beginning of ''Literature/LeftBehind''. Due to being below the "age of accountability", they automatically qualify for heaven.
73	* Played with in ''Literature/LilithsBrood.'' A BenevolentAlienInvasion has saved humanity from extinction in the wake of nuclear war. The aliens, called Oankali, travel the galaxy looking for sentient life to interbreed with, avoiding overspecialization and stagnation. The Oankali see humans tendency for intelligence and hierarchy as a ticking time bomb that will inevitably lead them to destroy themselves again. Humans have any genetic abnormalities cured (cancer and Huntington's Disease are specifically named), their lifespans extended to roughly 250 years, and are made sterile with one another. They can only reproduce with Oankali intermediaries, creating "construct" HalfHumanHybrid children. The humans who decline to join the Oankali build their own villages, as full of ennui as they are empty of children. This forms the central conflict of the second book, ''Adulthood Rites.''
74	* In Creator/DanWells' ''Literature/{{Partials}}'' series, humanity has been infected with a virus that the survivors are immune to, but any subsequent children are not. After over a decade of infants always dying within a few days, this has made the population rather hopeless for the future of humanity.
75	[[/folder]]
76
77	[[folder:Live-Action TV]]
78	* ''Series/StargateSG1'':
79	** In "[[Recap/StargateSG1S3E11PastAndPresent Past and Present]]", [=SG1=] arrives on a world where everyone is a young adult with amnesia and, while there are pictures of older people and children, they are nowhere to be found. [[spoiler:It turns out that a MadScientist's experiments with longevity caused everyone to revert to a younger age, making the elders young adults and the children nonexistent.]]
80	** As shown in "[[Recap/StargateSG1S5E102001 2001]]", the [[spoiler:Aschen Confederation]] offered the people of the planet [[spoiler:Volia ([=P3A-194=])]] a cure for a terrible disease on their world. However, the vaccine also resulted in sterility. A once thriving world of millions was reduced to chaos and riots, and then to a peaceful but empty world, with a few thousand apathetic residents and automated machines tending farmland. The earlier episode "[[Recap/StargateSG1S4E162010 2010]]" depicts a BadFuture in which the same race is in the process of doing this to Earth.
81	* ''Series/TheOuterLimits1995'': This trope is the main driver for the episode "[[Recap/TheOuterLimits1995S3E6DarkRain Dark Rain]]", in which a rain of some toxin causes people to become mostly sterile, resulting in this.
82	* The third season of ''Series/{{Zoo}}'' deals with the world facing global sterility, as elementary schools are shut down all over the world.
83	* ''Series/TheHandmaidsTale'', like the novel it's based on, takes place in a theocracy that began after the birthrate went down and the babies that were born had birth defects. The show has a flashback depicting June/Offred at the hospital with her child, looking at an empty nursery. A nurse explains to June that the only babies born at that hospital either went to the ICU or died. Later, someone actually attempts to kidnap June's baby.
84	* ''Series/ThatMitchellAndWebbLook'': The post-apocalyptic gameshow recurring sketch has a "contestant" say that one of the things she regrets from before "The Event" was not learning more about keeping children alive, prompting the host to say that life would certainly be different if even ''some'' of the children survived.
85	* The ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'' episode "[[Recap/StarTrekTheNextGenerationS1E16WhenTheBoughBreaks When the Bough Breaks]]" has the ''Enterprise'' discover the planet Aldea, which has been cloaked for thousands of years. While this has kept the Aldeans from being attacked or exploited, the cloaking has also made the Aldeans infertile. They actually kidnap some children from the ''Enterprise'' in their desperation.
86	* ''Series/WandaVision'': The [[StepfordSuburbia seemingly perfect]] sitcom town of Westview has no children [[spoiler:until Wanda wills her twin sons into existence]], despite the presence of an elementary school. Vision even comments on this oddity, mentioning that the playground he passes every morning on his way to work is always empty. The town is suddenly full of children for the HalloweenEpisode, and [[spoiler:Pietro deduces that Wanda probably had them hidden away asleep in their beds until they were needed, as an in-universe HideYourChildren]]. Then in the last episode, [[spoiler:when "Dottie" is released from brainwashing, she begs Wanda to let her daughter wake up]].
87	[[/folder]]
88
89	[[folder:Music]]
90	* The world that ''Music/FutariNo'' takes place in is a world where the majority of humans are a race called the [[CallASmeerpARabbit "adult,"]] who resemble robots. Flesh-and-bone humans still exist, but they are greatly outnumbered. Because of this, when Nana first met Lili, she had never seen another non-adult child before.
91	[[/folder]]
92
93	[[folder:Myths & Religion]]
94	* In ''Literature/TheBible'': A curse that God would put upon the women of the kingdom of Israel for their continual sin, according to [[Literature/BookOfHosea Hosea 9:14]], is a miscarrying womb and dry breasts.
95	[[/folder]]
96
97	[[folder:Tabletop Games]]
98	* ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'' supplement ''Heroes of Horror'' (which focuses on adding horror elements to a ''D&D'' session) has a chart of random creepy elements. One of them is "After spending some time in a village, it dawns on the heroes that there are absolutely no children."
99	[[/folder]]
100
101	[[folder:Video Games]]
102	* At the beginning of ''VideoGame/HalfLife2'', it's revealed that the Combine have, after conquering Earth, established a [[SterilityPlague suppression field]] to arrest human reproduction. It's been going on for so many years that all the children have grown up to adulthood. The empty playground in Point Insertion has the faint, ghostly laughter of children to reinforce the desolate factor. Blowing up the [[EvilTowerOfOminousness Citadel]] at the end of the game removes the suppression field.
103	* ''VideoGame/ResidentEvil4'' has the village of people who've been turned into PeoplePuppet {{mooks}}, and notes explain that the children were unable to survive being implanted with a PuppeteerParasite. Looking at the bonfire in the village near the start of the game reveals some very small skeletons.
104	* ''VideoGame/TheWalkingDeadTelltale'' has the community of Crawford, which exiles or kills anyone that is under the age of 14, requires special care (diabetes, long-term illnesses), or elderly. [[spoiler:This bit them in the ass harshly when one woman didn't want to abort her baby and went on a rampage against the community.]] [[spoiler:By the time you arrive there, it's overrun with zombies, having clearly collapsed from within.]]
105	* ''VideoGame/ResidentEvil5'' continues this trend where natives are given "vaccines" to protect against a "disease", with said vaccines actually being experimental [[PuppeteerParasite Las Plagas]] and the deaths of all children, and most women and men being blamed on the alleged disease.
106	* ''VideoGame/{{Fallout}}'':
107	** Vault City in ''VideoGame/Fallout2'' has no children due to contaminated groundwater rendering the population infertile. The fact that the place is a dystopia is unrelated, though: that's because the city's citizens are stuck-up snobs who look down their noses at anyone not from a Vault and the oppressive First Citizen has passed numerous laws that prevent too much contact with the outside world, resulting in cultural and economic stagnation. Whether either situation improves is up to the decisions of the Chosen One.
108	** ''VideoGame/Fallout3'''s DLC ''The Pitt'' is affected by a contagion that disfigures and sterilizes the residents, or worse, makes them go crazy or become Trogs. The only child in the area is Marie, the infant daughter of Lord Ashur, and she has an immunity to the TDC (Troglodyte Degeneration Contagion) that raises hopes for an eventual cure.
109	* ''Franchise/MassEffect'':
110	** It's not ''completely'' childless -- one in a thousand survive -- but this is pretty much what happened to the krogan when the genophage was deployed to stop their warmongering, and their culture has spent the last 1500 years spiraling below the DespairEventHorizon as a result. Krogan are such ExplosiveBreeders the salarians engineering the genophage calculated the 1-in-1000 would still be enough to maintain their population, [[DidntThinkThisThrough neglecting to consider]] the psychological fallout of having 999 of your 1000 children stillborn. It made the krogan a DyingRace as their subsequent fatalism and infighting meant they lacked the necessary will or unity to change their ways to offset their lower birth rate. One of the GoldenEnding slides for the krogan, if you cure the genophage, depicts them with children again; it is the happiest you will ever see them.
111	** ''VideoGame/MassEffectAndromeda'':
112	*** This is one of the reasons the krogan Clan Nakmor was chosen to join the [[VideoGame/MassEffectAndromeda Andromeda Initiative]], as they, apparently, exhibit a measure of resistance to the genophage. The salarians see it as a mistake to allow the krogan to uncontrollably populate the Andromeda Galaxy.
113	*** The kett don't seem to have any children. While HideYourChildren is also in effect (since the kett seen in the game are all fighting a war, and there's no glimpse of what civilian kett life is like, if there even ''is'' any), a line of dialogue from Nakmor Drack after learning the truth of kett "reproduction" suggests there are ''no'' kett kids full stop. Worse, it's pointed out kett genetic and biotechnology is so advanced they could fix whatever stopped them from reporting normally, but are ''choosing'' to be this way.
114	* In ''VideoGame/DigitalDevilSaga'' this forms a major plotpoint and reveal at the end of the first game giving both the characters and players a major clue that something is seriously off about the Junkyard. The second game averts this trope entirely.
115	-->'''Lupa:''' Have you ever seen a child here in the Junkyard?
116	* Wellington Wells, the setting of ''VideoGame/WeHappyFew''; There are no children anywhere, and some adults can be seen playing with the playground equipment "Because if we don't, who will?" That's because during an alternate World War II, the Germans occupied the village, and the people had to do a Very Bad Thing-- Namely, give away anyone under 13 to the German Military. The guilt eats away at the Wellies so much that they take a FantasticDrug to forget what they did, but still fly into crazed frenzies when they are reminded. One article you find describes a "Breeder Riot", where an angry mob killed a pregnant woman. [[spoiler:Sally Boyle is mother to the only baby in town, and her storyline is trying to escape Wellington Wells before someone discovers it.]]
117	* In ''VideoGame/HeavensVault'' Aliya notices that there are no children on Maersi. It is implied that it is the consequence of the despotic rule of Iox.
118	[[/folder]]
119
120	[[folder:Webcomics]]
121	* Implied on ''Webcomic/EverythingIsFine'' -- Despite there being parks with playgrounds, no children are ever seen or mentioned in the neighborhoood. [[spoiler: It seems that all the children have been kidnapped and are used as hostages to keep the adults in line.]]
122	[[/folder]]
123
124	[[folder:Web Original]]
125	* ''Website/SCPFoundation'': [[http://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/scp-1322 SCP-1322]] is a rift to AnotherDimension whose denizens were briefly friendly to the Foundation, until the Foundation tried to help them by developing a vaccine to a widespread illness. Tragically, it had the side effect of sterilizing the population, and the furious "Last Generation" launched a LensmanArmsRace specifically to get {{Revenge}}.
126	* The world of ''WebOriginal/SeventeenThousandSevenHundredSeventySix'' isn't ''dystopic'', per se. The story is set 15,000 years after every sapient being spontaneously developed CompleteImmortality and [[ImmortalProcreationClause became infertile]] for unknown reasons, and for the most part, people feel that LivingForeverIsNoBigDeal and pass the time in deliberate ModernStasis with hobbies like increasingly [[{{Calvinball}} bizarre variants]] of football. However, while the infertility issue is usually carefully talked around, it is made clear that the presence of children is greatly missed, as one character mentions finding a pre-2026 mural of a mother holding a baby and breaking down in tears.
127	[[/folder]]
128
129	[[folder:Western Animation]]
130	* PlayedWith on ''WesternAnimation/YoungJustice2010'' -- [[HumanoidAbomination Klarion]] and his minions use magic to split the Earth into two dimensions, one containing everyone under 18 and the other with everyone older. From what we see the kid world functions surprisingly well, with teenagers doing all they can to care for unattended children. The adult world, however, breaks into riots from desperate parents whose kids vanished right before their eyes [[spoiler:that were egged on by The Light in order to provide cover for The Light's goals]].
131	* Parodied in ''WesternAnimation/AmericanDad''. When Stan goes to see a doctor about a vasectomy, he finds the clinic's dream is a world without children.
132	-->'''Stan:''' A world without children... Future generations will thank us!
133	* A variation occurs in the ''WesternAnimation/PhineasAndFerb'' episode "Phineas and Ferb's Quantum Boogaloo". In process of child-proofing everything, eventually children themselves were child-proofed and stored away until adulthood. Under the rule of Emperor Doofenschmirtz, children are not allowed any more.
134	[[/folder]]
135
136	[[folder:Real Life]]
137	* Many [[UsefulNotes/NativeAmericans Native American]] and First Nations communities in the United States and Canada became this in the late 19th and early 20th century, when their children were forcibly removed and sent to government-run residential schools under the "kill the Indian, save the man" assimilation policy. Thousands died (mainly from disease), and those who survived returned to their families scarred from abuse and stripped of their language and culture. The impact of this policy (which in some places didn't end until the late 1990s) is still felt in Native American communities to this day. This was also done to the UsefulNotes/AustralianAborigines, resulting in what is known as The [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stolen_Generations Stolen Generations]], however it was less wholesale. Children with mixed race descent were particularly targeted.
138	* Rural areas around the developed world can shade into this as fertility rates drop and emigration to the nearby cities occurs, leaving increasingly elderly populations behind.
139	* Many nations and ethnicities have seen their populations drop below replacement level reproduction and begun population declines. Some countries have encouraged or relied upon immigration to make up the difference, to varying levels of acceptance by the native born. Though mathematically the declines have terminal points, how low they will actually go is anyone's guess, since a turnaround is a matter of population members being willing to have more children. As an example, Japan's current rate will drop its population from 128 million in 2010 to 87 million in 2060.
140	** South Korea might be the de facto real-life example. Its birthrate reached 0.81 in 2021, one of the lowest in the world, and is still falling. It's even become a hazard to the nation's economy, and most of the government's efforts to reverse it have fallen flat.
141	* When the [[HiveQueen queen]] of an ant colony dies, the rest of the colony eventually expires because no more eggs are being laid. This can also happen with bee/wasp/hornet hives as well, though they are usually able to raise new queens when needed.
142	[[/folder]]

Context Main / ChildlessDystopia