As of the latest tally in 2022 – when inflation was red hot – Canada’s fertility rate fell to just 1.33 children per woman.Fred Lum/the Globe and Mail

Jonah Prousky is a management consultant and freelance writer who focuses on business, technology and society.

Canadians now spend more of their incomes on housing than almost any other country in the world. Between 1980 and 2020, housing prices in Canada rose by 746 per cent, far outpacing the median household income, which grew by less than half of that. Then housing prices soared another 50 per cent during the pandemic.

Meanwhile, the country’s fertility rate has been falling steadily, hitting historic lows in each of the past five years it was measured. As of the latest tally in 2022 – when inflation was red hot – Canada’s fertility rate fell to just 1.33 children per woman. For reference, a country requires a fertility rate of 2.1 to keep its population stable, without relying on immigration.

So how are these two phenomena – soaring housing prices and falling birth rates – connected? One study from the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development found that when housing prices rise 10 per cent, the birth rate among homeowners increases by 2.8 per cent, but falls by 4.9 per........

© The Globe and Mail