In Britain and most other countries today, the birth rate has fallen below replacement levels – usually defined as 2.1 babies per woman. Fertility in Britain first fell below replacement levels in about 1973, and since 2010 has fallen steadily to about 1.55 babies per woman.

These trends are now prompting a lot of doom-laden commentary from demographers, economists and politicians. They claim that an ageing population, with ever-fewer working-age people supporting ever-more retirees, is creating an unsustainable burden for society.

The irony is that such alarmism about ageing and low fertility is aggravating the very anxieties and uncertainties that are contributing to falling birth rates. Thus, it is important to dispel the misconceptions and myths about ageing populations.

We take three here: that falling fertility leads to economic impoverishment; that we are running out of people; and that changing age-dependency ratios are too much to bear.

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