History Main / ChildlessDystopia

* The world of ''WebOriginal/SeventeenThousandSevenHundredSeventySix'' isn't ''dystopic'', per se. The story is set 15,000 years after every sapient being spontaneously developed CompleteImmortality and [[ImmortalProcreationClause became infertile]] for unknown reasons, and for the most part, people feel that LivingForeverIsNoBigDeal and pass the time in deliberate ModernStasis with hobbies like increasingly [[{{Calvinball}} bizarre variants]] of football. However, while the infertility issue is usually carefully talked around, it is made clear that the presence of children is greatly missed, as one character mentions finding a modern-day mural of children and breaking down in tears.

* ''Anime/{{ICE}}'': All men died out, and HomosexualReproduction hasn't been invented, so the now all-female humanity is dying out, too.

* The 1992 novel ''Literature/ChildrenOfMen'' by P.D. James.
* ''Greybeard'', by Creator/BrianWAldiss, has a childless world caused by a SterilityPlague.[[note]]This was published decades before the somewhat similar ''Literature/ChildrenOfMen'' (see above). Hence, [[ScifiGhetto there was a certain amount of irritation in the SF fan community when P.D. James was credited with having come up with a new and original idea by literary critics]].[[/note]]

** As shown in "[[Recap/StargateSG1S5E102001 2001]]", the [[spoiler:Aschen Confederation]] offered the people of the planet [[spoiler:Volia (P3A-194)]] a cure for a terrible disease on their world. However, the vaccine also resulted in sterility. A once thriving world of millions was reduced to chaos and riots, and then to a peaceful but empty world, with a few thousand apathetic residents and automated machines tending farmland. The earlier episode "[[Recap/StargateSG1S4E162010 2010]]" depicts a BadFuture in which the same race is in the process of doing this to Earth.

** The [[spoiler:Aschen Confederation]] offered the people of the planet [[spoiler:Volia ([=P3A-194=])]] a cure for a terrible disease on their world. However, the vaccine also resulted in sterility. A once thriving world of millions was reduced to chaos and riots, and then to a peaceful but empty world, with a few thousand apathetic residents and automated machines tending farmland. An earlier episode portrayed a BadFuture in which the same race was in the process of doing this to Earth.
** In "Past and Present", [=SG1=] arrives on a world where everyone is a young adult with amnesia and, while there are pictures of older people and children, they are nowhere to be found. [[spoiler:It turns out that a MadScientist's experiments with longevity caused everyone to revert to a younger age, making the elders young adults and the children nonexistent.]]
* The main driver for ''Series/TheOuterLimits1995'' episode "Dark Rain". In the episode, a rain of some toxin causes people to become mostly sterile, resulting in this.

* ''Series/ThatMitchellAndWebbLook'': The post apocalyptic gameshow recurring sketch has a "contestant" say that one of the things she regrets from before "The Event" was not learning more about keeping children alive, prompting the host to say that life would certainly be different if even ''some'' of the children survived.
* ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'' episode "When The Bough Breaks" has the ''Enterprise'' discover the planet Aldea, which has been cloaked for thousands of years. While this has kept the Aldeans from being attacked or exploited, the cloaking has also made the Aldeans infertile. They actually kidnap some children from the ''Enterprise'' in their desperation.
* ''Series/WandaVision'': The [[StepfordSuburbia seemingly perfect]] sitcom town of Westview has no children [[spoiler:until Wanda wills her twin sons into existence]], despite the presence of an elementary school. Vision even comments on this oddity, mentioning that the playground he passes every morning on his way to work is always empty. The town is suddenly full of children for the HalloweenEpisode, and [[spoiler:Pietro deduces that Wanda probably had them hidden away asleep in their beds until they were needed, as an in-universe HideYourChildren]]. Then in the last episode, [[spoiler:when "Dottie" is released from brainwashing she begs Wanda to let her daughter wake up]].

* ''VideoGame/TheWalkingDead'' has the community of Crawford, which exiles or kills anyone that is under the age of 14, requires special care (diabetes, long-term illnesses), or elderly. [[spoiler:This bit them in the ass harshly when one woman didn't want to abort her baby and went on a rampage against the community.]] [[spoiler:By the time you arrive there, it's overrun with zombies, having clearly collapsed from within.]]

* Vault City in ''VideoGame/{{Fallout 2}}'' has no children due to contaminated groundwater rendering the population infertile. The fact that the place is a distopia is unrelated, though: that's because the city's citizens are stuck-up snobs who look down their noses at anyone not from a Vault and the oppressive First Citizen has passed numerous laws that prevent too much contact with the outside world, resulting in cultural and economic stagnation. Whether either situation improves is up to the decisions of the Chosen One.
* ''VideoGame/Fallout3'''s DLC ''The Pitt'' is affected by a contagion that disfigures and sterilizes the residents, or worse, makes them go crazy or become Trogs. The only child in the area is Marie, the infant daughter of Lord Ashur, and she has an immunity to the TDC (Troglodyte Degeneration Contagion) that raises hopes for an eventual cure.

[[folder:Web Comics]]

* In ''LightNovel/SundayWithoutGod'', when people stopped being able to die, they also stopped being able to give birth, so with no new children being born in fifteen years the world's population has shrunk considerably. The only exceptions are twelve-year-old Ai, whose very birth is shrouded in mystery, and [[spoiler:Ulla's twin sister Celica, who was born fifteen years ago but because she was frozen in time, is still a baby]].

* Implied on ''Webcomic/EverythingIsFine'' -- Despite there being parks with playgrounds, no children are ever seen or mentioned in the neighborhoood. The 9th episode in the series, ''An Iron Voice'', hints that [[spoiler: the children are still around somewhere, but their parents are forbidden from seeing them.]]

* ''Wiki/SCPFoundation'': [[http://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/scp-1322 SCP-1322]] is a rift to AnotherDimension whose denizens were briefly friendly to the Foundation, until the Foundation tried to help them by developing a vaccine to a widespread illness. Tragically, it had the side effect of sterilizing the population, and the furious "Last Generation" launched a LensmanArmsRace specifically to get {{Revenge}}.

* At the beginning of ''VideoGame/HalfLife2'', the Combine have been using a [[AppliedPhlebotinum suppression field]] to arrest human reproduction for so many years that all the children have grown up to adulthood. The empty playground in Point Insertion has the faint, ghostly laughter of children to reinforce the desolate factor. Blowing up the [[EvilTowerOfOminousness Citadel]] at the end of the game removes the suppression field.

* ''VideoGame/TheWalkingDead'' has the community of Crawford, which exiles or kills anyone that is under the age of 14, requires special care (diabetes, long-term illnesses), or elderly. [[spoiler:This bit them in the ass harshly, when one woman didn't want to abort her baby and went on a rampage against the community.]] [[spoiler:By the time you arrive there, it's overrun with zombies, having clearly collapsed from within.]]
* ''VideoGame/ResidentEvil5'' continues this trend where natives are given "vaccines" to protect against a "disease", with said vaccines actually being experimental [[PuppeteerParasite Las Plagas]] and the deaths of all children, women, and most men being blamed on the alleged disease.

* At the beginning of ''VideoGame/HalfLife2'', the Combine have been using a [[AppliedPhlebotinum suppression field]] to arrest human reproduction for years. The empty playground pictured above has the faint, ghostly laughter of children to reinforce the creepy-factor. Blowing up their EvilTowerOfOminousness at the end of the game removes the suppression field.