Population decline is a problem right now. Does Washington have the power to reverse it?

Precipitous population decline in the world’s leading developed countries threatens to foreshadow similar issues in the United States, a trajectory the Trump administration likely holds limited capacity to reverse, experts warn.

Japan was the latest country to issue a “quiet emergency” this year, after birth rates fell to a historic low, similar to patterns in the U.S. Japan’s government data projects the country’s population of roughly 124 million people will fall to 87 million by 2070, as its birth rate stands at an abysmal 1.15 children per woman, far short of the standard population replacement rate of 2.1.

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