• Vienna Institute of Demography (Ed.) - Miguel Sánchez-Romero - Michaela Kreyenfeld - Iñaki Permanyer - Michaela Potančoková - Vanessa di Lego (Guest Eds.)

Vienna Yearbook of Population Research 2025

Population inequality matters

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The Vienna Yearbook of Population Research is an open access journal that features contributions addressing population trends as well as a broad range of theoretical and methodological issues in population research. Besides Research articles and Review articles, the journal includes Data and Trends contributions, which analyse changes in population dynamics or present databases and data infrastructure. It also features Perspectives articles, which focus on ideas, concepts or theories, as well as invited Debates reflecting on selected questions and issues. Since 2008, the volumes have been devoted to selected themes following special calls for thematic issues.

The 2025 volume of the Vienna Yearbook of Population Research focuses on the role of population inequality in demographic research, particularly, on the interplay between population diversity and social inequality. Besides classical markers of heterogeneity in individual behavior, such as gender, age, education, family status, migration background, urban-rural residence and socio-economic status, other sources of inequality are covered in the volume. They include marginalized populations, such as homeless people, generational and spatial factors as well as emerging trends, such as digitalization. Understanding population inequality is key for modeling population developments and projecting them into the future. Equally important is to understand how and why different types of inequality arise and evolve, and what policy challenges they impose for socio-economic development, welfare systems and social cohesion.

Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften
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Vienna Yearbook of Population Research 2025
ISSN 1728-4414
Print Edition
ISSN 1728-5305
Online Edition
ISBN 978-3-7001-9681-5
Print Edition
ISBN 978-3-7001-9682-2
Online Edition



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Austrian Academy of Sciences Press
A-1011 Wien, Dr. Ignaz Seipel-Platz 2,
Tel. +43-1-515 81/DW 3420, Fax +43-1-515 81/DW 3400
https://verlag.oeaw.ac.at, e-mail: bestellung.verlag@oeaw.ac.at
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Artificial intelligence and fertility: Gender and educational inequalities in family formation

    Alícia Adserà

Vienna Yearbook of Population Research 2025, pp. 58-69, 2025/12/17

Population inequality matters

doi: 10.1553/p-5fff-96k6


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doi:10.1553/p-5fff-96k6

Abstract

Artificial intelligence (AI) is propelling a new phase of technological change beyond routine automation, and impacts directly the domains where individuals decide if, when and with whom to have children. This debate essay outlines four interlocking chan-nels through which AI is likely to reshape – and often widen – fertility inequalities over the next two decades. (1) Labour market polarisation: AI fosters labour augmentation, capital labour substitution and the emergence of new tasks. Those impacts may in turn affect income levels as well as gender pay differentials across educational groups, and alter the economic preconditions for partnership and childbearing. (2) AI-enabled reproductive med-icine and fertility apps: machine-learning tools promise higher success rates and finer cycle tracking, yet their benefits could concentrate among affluent, digitally literate couples depending on the policy environment. (3) Algorithmic partner matching: recommender systems in dating platforms intensify educational homogamy and may entrench socio-economic assortative mating, with downstream effects on union formation and completed fertility. (4) Algorithmic influence on ideals and information: personalised social media feeds and workplace monitoring shape perceptions of the “right” timing, costs and effort of parenthood, potentially reinforcing existing divides. Whether these mechanisms merely replace earlier drivers of fertility inequality or accumulate atop them remains an open ques-tion for demographic research and policy.

Keywords: Artificial intelligence; Fertility; Gender inequality; Educational inequality; Labour market polarisation; Reproductive technology; Online dating

Published Online: 2025/12/17

Object Identifier: 0xc1aa5572 0x0040deb3

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Rights: © The Author(s), Austrian Academy of Sciences, Vienna 2025 This article/book is published under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Public License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) that allows the sharing, use and adaptation in any medium, provided that the user gives appropriate credit, provides a link to the license, and indicates if changes were made.