Leigh Morris

With opinions mostly on human progress, water poverty, naturalism and F1

[Leigh Morris @lmorris1007]

@CrossAndCaptial Income based

[Our World in Data @OurWorldInData]

Fertility rates across many countries have converged, despite starting from very different levels.

(This Data Insight was written by @_HannahRitchie.)

In the thirty years since I was born, fertility rates in my country, the United Kingdom, have not changed much. In 1993, the fertility rate was 1.8 births per woman. Thirty years later, it had dropped only slightly, to 1.6 births.

Elsewhere, the change has been much more dramatic; fertility rates have dropped sharply and are now similar to those in the UK.

You can see this in the chart, which shows the change in fertility rates from 1993 (in blue) to 2023 (in red). In Qatar and Iran, rates dropped from almost 4 births per woman to 1.7.

Fertility rates have fallen a lot across Asia and South America, too — Malaysia and Colombia are two examples. This marks a much faster demographic transition than many countries experienced historically.

Convergence isn’t the whole story, though. Here, I’ve picked countries with fertility rates that are similar to the UK’s today. But some have fallen far below these levels: in Chile and Thailand, the fertility rate was 1.2 births per woman in 2023, and may have fallen even further.

[Leigh Morris @lmorris1007]

@BladeoftheS Necessary to help control govt spending. Still gives people about 15 years of pension, >10 yrs more than when it was introduced

[Zoe Gardner @ZoeJardiniere]

Yesterday morning I got asked the real serious question of this election -

Is the UK full?

[Leigh Morris @lmorris1007]

@paullewismoney @OBR_UK Alternative is means tested pension. People don’t seem to realise what government borrowing is. It’s unpaid debt. We continue to borrow huge amounts of money, saddling the youth with our credit card bill. Raise pensions to 70, means test pension, simplify tax to decrease avoidanc

[Leigh Morris @lmorris1007]

@ZoeJardiniere Agree 100%

[Leigh Morris @lmorris1007]

@ZackPolanski @ZoeJardiniere Yield on flats say, 4.5%; service charges, maintenance, void period and agency fees leave about 3% before corporation tax. This is a very low return on capital, and is far from a hands off investment. What profit level is acceptable to you?

[Leigh Morris @lmorris1007]

@ZoeJardiniere Keep talking about this. LOUDLY!

[Marina Hyde @MarinaHyde]

My column on the royal family getting their handouts doubled

https://t.co/NBOPV9yueh

[Leigh Morris @lmorris1007]

@DanNeidle @staylorish Indeed. A market research company! Not in their wheelhouse

[Leigh Morris @lmorris1007]

@DanNeidle @YouGov Dan I agree with the vast majority of your posts - surely a third scenario is where sustained gdp growth (with no increase in public service demand) can increase tax revenue without a concomitant increase in tax rate?

[Leigh Morris @lmorris1007]

@DanNeidle @antib69 The corruption in the honours system is just disgusting

[Leigh Morris @lmorris1007]

@Neevesy33 @MBrundleF1 When I was 31 my boss took his bike round there. He crashed and the accident left him a quadriplegic. He was 38 I think.

[Marina Hyde @MarinaHyde]

My column on Musk, the politicians, and the rape gangs scandal

https://t.co/bnwG1wsJjV

[David Spiegelhalter @d_spiegel]

My polemic in Nature on probability has attracted some attention https://t.co/rSzPgE8tg4 - you should be able to download from here
https://t.co/vGD4afkNWw

[Leigh Morris @lmorris1007]

@PeterDWindsor
Really appreciated your analysis of São Paulo.
-Hamilton and Alonso make more mistakes and aren’t as fast agree they should retire?
-2025 - Hamilton to be comprehensively outperformed by Leclerc and retire (dispirited), Sainz to return to Ferrari 2026???

[Leigh Morris @lmorris1007]

@wearetherace They say the first thing to go is a tenth in qualifying. Maybe it’s your back in the race? (Wasn’t Lewis complaining his back hurt in qualifying?)

[Beautiful News Daily @beautiful__news]

Today, the UK becomes the first major economy to wean itself off coal power. After 142 years.
https://t.co/5GiWhhuACl

[Marina Hyde @MarinaHyde]

My column on Diddy, Fayed and the sex-case industrial complex – just think of the number of henchmen WHO KNEW

https://t.co/ptOzwPhrfm

[Leigh Morris @lmorris1007]

@MarinaHyde One of your best