Acting Deputy Director General for Strategy and Organisational Transformation (SOT), at the National Department of Social Development, Mr Jacques van Zuydam, discusses the decline in birth rates in South Africa. The country’s fertility rate has dropped from an average of 2.78 children per woman in 2008 to 2.21 in 2025, according to Statistics South Africa. Mr van Zuydam explains what some of the causes of the decline are and speaks to economic and social realities shaping people’s choices.