China's total fertility rate, the average number of children a woman has over her lifetime, has fallen to about one, far below the roughly 2.1 needed to keep a population stable without migration. The decline started before the one-child policy: as incomes rose, schooling spread and women entered work, families had fewer children, and the rate was already falling steeply in the 1970s. The policy, designed in 1979 and rolled out nationally from 1980, limited most couples to one child and accelerated a trend already underway. After limits were relaxed to two children in 2016 and three in 2021, births did not recover much, suggesting that housing costs, school pressure and changing expectations weigh heavily on families.

Hampi is a UNESCO World Heritage Site in Karnataka, India, with more than 1,600 surviving remains spread over 4,100 hectares. It was the capital of the Vijayanagara Empire from 1336 to 1565. Travellers from Persia and Portugal described it as a prosperous, wealthy and grand city with temples, markets and farms along the Tungabhadra River. By 1500 it was estimated to be the world's second-largest city after Beijing, and probably India's richest at the time. In 1565 a coalition of Muslim sultanates defeated the Vijayanagara Empire, its capital was conquered and destroyed, and the city was left in ruins. Hampi remains a religious centre, with the active Virupaksha Temple at its heart.