History Main / ChildlessDystopia

* ''Anime/{{ICE}}''. All men died out, and HomosexualReproduction hasn't been invented, so the now all-female humanity is dying out, too.

* In ''Manga/ZekkyouGakyuu'', 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.

* 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 [[AdultFear 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]].

*** 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. Naturally, the salarians see it as a mistake to allow the krogan to uncontrollably populate the Andromeda Galaxy.

* It's not ''completely'' childless -- one in a thousand survive -- but this is pretty much what happened to Tuchanka in the ''Franchise/MassEffect'' games when the genophage was deployed, and the krogan culture has spent the last 1500 years spiraling below the DespairEventHorizon as a result. It's telling that 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.
** Notably, krogan reproduction is so fruitful that this situation is easily avoidable; even 1 in 1000 is still more than enough to ''still'' allow for positive population growth. The sticking points are krogan culture, violent as it is, and the aforementioned despair and aimlessness that has prevented most krogan from even trying to reproduce.
** 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. Naturally, the salarians see it as a mistake to allow the krogan to uncontrollably populate the Andromeda Galaxy.
** Overall, the situation of the krogan actually came from an ''inversion'' of this at first, but turned around and ended up played straight, dating back to before they were introduced to the galactic community: The krogan were an entire ''race'' of [[BloodKnight Blood Knights]] and warrior-berserkers who pretty much built their entire society up around the concept of who was the toughest guy on the block and who could fight the best fights. As a result, they evolved into a race of 800-pound bipedal lizard men with redundant organs and a penchant for waging war on themselves. To keep up with this, they also evolved to have an absolutely ''staggering'' birthrate that would put rabbits to shame, which served them quite well since their death rate was also comparatively high. The problem emerged when the salarians, looking for a weapon to use against a race of hive-minded space insects called the rachni that the galaxy was currently at war with, uplifted the krogan to serve as those weapons due to their toughness and sheer numbers. They worked well, driving the rachni to the brink of extinction and winning the war, but the newly uplifted and unified krogan now faced the problem of no longer having a war to fight to keep their numbers (and aggression) in check, so they started a bit of a campaign of their own to "colonize" (and by colonize we mean invade) nearby planets to accommodate their high birthrates in an event called the "Krogan Rebellion." To stop the krogan, the salarians introduced the genophage to deprive them of their numbers advantage so that they could be brought under control, and the rebellion was successfully suppressed. As mentioned above, the 1-per-1000 birthrate is still viable ''on paper,'' but what it didn't account for is the massive hit to the krogans' cultural ego that resulted from losing the war, which pretty much killed the unity the krogan had experienced during the war with the rachni and caused their society to once again fragment, devolving back into warring clans and wandering brigands and making the birth rate ''nonviable.'' Of course, the burden of guilt here doesn't rest ''solely'' on the krogan for their decline. As "theoretically viable" as it is, it was ''still'' the Salarians and Turians who infected the Krogans with the genophage, and then [[DidntThinkThisThrough lacked the foresight]] to consider the implications (something the short-lived, fast-thinking Salarians are notorious for as a species) of subjecting an entire ''species'' to the horrifying psychological effects of watching 999 of their 1000 children ''die'' before they even get a chance to be born.
** On a non-krogan front, the kett of ''Mass Effect: Andromeda'' 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. Which, given the nature of kett reproduction raises many horrifying questions.

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]]. 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.

Any resident {{Child Hater}}s will probably be pretty cheerful, though.

* PlayedWith on ''WesternAnimation/YoungJustice'' -- [[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 [[AdultFear 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]].

-->'''Stan:''' A world without children... [[WhatAnIdiot Future generations will thank us]]!

* In ''LightNovel/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.]]

** Notably, Krogan reproduction is so fruitful that this situation is easily avoidable; even 1 in 1000 is still more than enough to allow for positive population growth. The sticking points are Krogan culture, violent as it is, and the aforementioned despair and aimlessness that has prevented most Krogan from even trying to reproduce.

** Overall, the situation of the Krogans actually came from an ''inversion'' of this at first, but turned around and ended up played straight, dating back to before they were introduced to the galactic community: The Krogans were an entire ''race'' of [[BloodKnight Blood Knights]] and warrior-berserkers who pretty much built their entire society up around the concept of who was the toughest guy on the block and who could fight the best fights. As a result, they evolved into a race of 800-pound bipedal lizard men with redundant organs and a penchant for waging war on themselves. To keep up with this, they also evolved to have an absolutely ''staggering'' birthrate that would put rabbits to shame, which served them quite well since their death rate was also comparatively high. The problem emerged when the Salarians, looking for a weapon to use against a race of hive-minded space insects called the Rachni that the galaxy was currently at war with, uplifted the Krogan to serve as those weapons due to their toughness and sheer numbers. They worked well, driving the Rachni to the brink of extinction and winning the war, but the newly uplifted and unified Krogan now faced the problem of no longer having a war to fight to keep their numbers (and aggression) in check, so they started a bit of a campaign of their own to "colonize" (and by colonize we mean invade) nearby planets to accommodate their high birthrates in an event called the "Krogan Rebellion." To stop the Krogan, the Salarians introduced the genophage to deprive them of their numbers advantage so that they could be brought under control, and the rebellion was successfully suppressed. As mentioned above, the 1-per-1000 birthrate is still viable ''on paper,'' but what it didn't account for is the massive hit to the Krogans' cultural ego that resulted from losing the war, which pretty much killed the unity the Krogan had experienced during the war with the Rachni and caused their society to once again fragment, devolving back into warring clans and wandering brigands and making the birth rate ''nonviable.'' Of course, the burden of guilt here doesn't rest ''solely'' on the Krogan for their decline. As "theoretically viable" as it is, it was ''still'' the Salarians and Turians who infected the Krogans with the genophage, and then [[DidntThinkThisThrough lacked the foresight]] to consider the implications (something the short-lived, fast-thinking Salarians are notorious for as a species) of subjecting an entire ''species'' to the horrifying psychological effects of watching 999 of their 1000 children ''die'' before they even get a chance to be born.

* In ''Film/ChildrenOfMen'', almost all of humanity has been rendered sterile, and society has collapsed into violent chaos.

* 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 simple 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.

* 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]].

* Many [[UsefulNotes/NativeAmericans Native-American]] communities 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.

** Overall, the situation of the Krogans actually came from an ''inversion'' of this at first, but turned around and ended up played straight, dating back to before they were introduced to the galactic community: The Krogans were an entire ''race'' of [[BloodKnight Blood Knights]] and warrior-berserkers who pretty much built their entire society up around the concept of who was the toughest guy on the block and who could fight the best fights. As a result, they evolved into a race of 800-pound bipedal lizard men with redundant organs and a penchant for waging war on themselves. To keep up with this, they also evolved to have an absolutely ''staggering'' birthrate that would put rabbits to shame, which served them quite well since their death rate was also comparatively high. The problem emerged when the Salarians, looking for a weapon to use against a race of hive-minded space insects called the Rachni that the galaxy was currently at war with, uplifted the Krogan to serve as those weapons due to their toughness and sheer numbers. They worked well, driving the Rachni to the brink of extinction and winning the war, but the newly uplifted and unified Krogan now faced the problem of no longer having a war to fight to keep their numbers (and aggression) in check, so they started a bit of a campaign of their own to "colonize" (and by colonize we mean invade) nearby planets to accommodate their high birthrates in an event called the "Krogan Rebellion." To stop the Krogan, the Salarians introduced the genophage to deprive them of their numbers advantage so that they could be brought under control, and the rebellion was successfully suppressed. As mentioned above, the 1-per-1000 birthrate is still viable ''on paper,'' but what it didn't account for is the massive hit to the Krogans' cultural ego that resulted from losing the war, which pretty much killed the unity the Krogan had experienced during the war with the Rachni and caused their society to once again fragment, devolving back into warring clans and wandering brigands and making the birth rate ''nonviable.''

[-[[caption-width-right:350:[[BadNewsIrrelevantNews "...but I just saved a bundle on playground-maintenance by switching to Combine!"]]]]-]

* In ''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.

* ''WesternAnimation/{{The Easter Bunny Is Coming to Town}}'' 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.

* Zig-zagged in ''WebOriginal/SeventeenThousandSevenHundredSeventySix'', set 15,000 years after every sapient being spontaneously developed CompleteImmortality and [[ImmortalProcreationClause became infertile]] for unknown reasons. For the most part, people feel that LivingForeverIsNoBigDeal and pass the time in deliberate ModernStasis with hobbies like increasingly [[{{Calvinball}} bizarre variants]] of football. The infertility issue is usually carefully talked around, but one character mentions finding a modern-day mural of children and breaking down in tears.
-->'''Ten:''' It's a free play, buddy. Clock's all zeroes. It's after the end of the world.