Barbara Crossette

In the following viewpoint, New York Times writer Barbara Crossette, reporting on the UN population conference in New York in November 1997, describes the concern that many demographers have expressed over the declining fertility rates in the United States, Japan, and many European countries. Decreased fertility may adversely affect these nations’ economic productivity, she writes. Developed nations will also face massive immigration from developing nations, which have higher fertility rates and poorer economies. Some industrialized countries are providing incentives for couples to reproduce, she notes, but demographers estimate that almost half the world’s nations will have below- replacement fertility rates by 2015.

As you read, consider the following questions:

1. Why is the U.S. population growing more rapidly than other developed nations, according to Crossette?
2. According to the author, what nation...