"the global fertility rate is on track to fall below the level required to stabilise the population 25 years earlier than expected, in 2050" [25 years earlier]
The 25-year acceleration in fertility decline directly quantifies how much faster demographic collapse is occurring than models predicted, supporting the signal's claim of accelerating decline.
Reasoning from this article
The article cites China's 1949-low and Japan's 1899-low birth rates as evidence that fertility collapse is not gradual but sharp and synchronized across the world's largest economies. This compression of the timeline means governments and firms have less time to adapt labor supply through immigration, retirement age changes, or female workforce participation—making the structural constraint more acute.