V24 Exclusive: Stefan Tompson sits down with former PM Morawiecki to uncover why Poland’s birth rates are plummeting.
Stefan Tompson
Aug 22, 2025 - 12:32 PM
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When Prosperity Isn’t Enough
Across much of the developed world, people are having fewer children than ever before. This trend is often blamed on economics: high housing costs, unstable jobs, student debt, or insufficient state support. But what happens when a country addresses these challenges, and the birth rate still falls? According to former Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki, Poland provides a striking example.
He points out that the economy is growing, cities are safe, and young people are optimistic. As one Polish voice put it, “My generation will be better off than our parents and grandparents.” Yet fertility rates continue to decline, mirroring trends in countries facing stagnation or hardship. For Morawiecki, this demonstrates that the root of the issue is cultural, not economic.
Culture Over Comfort
Morawiecki observes that young Poles today enjoy unprecedented opportunities, freedom, and financial stability - conditions that should, in theory, encourage family life. Yet declining birth rates are now a global phenomenon, from Europe to Iran, Turkey, India, and many African nations. Afghanistan remains an exception, with fertility rates still above four children per woman. Israel’s religious communities also maintain higher birth rates, though even there, trends are beginning to shift.
So why are people choosing not to have children despite security and prosperity? Morawiecki argues that modern culture promotes individual freedom, personal satisfaction, and consumption, often framing children as a burden and marriage as optional. At the same time, belief in shared purpose, national identity, and tradition has weakened. Morawiecki notes that much of modern media promotes a lifestyle centered on individualism rather than family or community values, eroding attachment to the nation and collective responsibility. When history feels shameful and culture oppressive, there is little motivation to invest in a future for the next generation.
A Civilizational Signal
For Morawiecki, the collapse in birth rates is more than a demographic trend, it signals a deeper societal shift. Communities are replaced by reliance on the state, family duty by self-optimization, and collective responsibility by personal convenience. Without a shared sense of meaning or purpose, the incentive to build families or communities diminishes.
He warns that wealth and stability alone cannot reverse this trend. For societies to thrive, young people must feel that life, and their efforts, have value beyond themselves. Poland’s demographic challenge is thus not simply a national concern but part of a global transformation: prosperity without purpose leaves fertility and society itself at risk.
