Want to cut back on doomscrolling? Here’s another good reason to do so: recent studies suggest that the introduction of the first iPhone, in 2007, may have played a significant role in falling fertility rates in the United States.
According to The New York Times, “Two new papers, one published on (June 8, 2026) and the other in May, are the first academic endeavors that test whether the smartphone was a cause.”
The Times added: “They are the most recent efforts to explain the sweeping fertility rate decline in the United States and other countries over the past 20 years.”
In short, enterprising researchers compared fertility rates in U.S. counties where iPhones ruled and AT&T had near universal coverage (the first iPhone was released in 2007 and only available on the AT&T network until 2011) with counties that had little to no smartphone coverage. One of the studies found that the iPhone could have been responsible for as much as half the fertility decline between 2007 and 2011.
What contributed to this drop?
Researchers theorize that iPhone users, particularly those between 15 and 24 (who showed the steepest fertility declines), were socializing more on their phones and less in person, so were less likely to have sex and become pregnant.
Others point to smartphones as a new way to access pornography, an often-solitary pursuit further isolating individuals from interacting and having sex with real people.
In a nutshell, many iPhone and smartphone users may be navel- or otherwise-gazing online instead of socializing and having sex “IRL.”
Ged Kenslea, Senior Director of Communications at AIDS Healthcare Foundation, has worked on public health issues for 30 years.
