South Africa is one of the fastest-rising stories on Reddit right now. Over roughly 22 hours, 3 threads about it surfaced across 2 subreddits, most of the conversation happening in r/Futurology and r/sports. That adds up to around 758 upvotes and 209 comments.
Where Reddit is talking about it
| Community | Threads | Upvotes | Comments | First thread |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| r/Futurology | 1 | 451 | 79 | Oct 30, 22:18 UTC |
| r/sports | 2 | 307 | 130 | Oct 31, 14:54 UTC |
The biggest threads
- South Africa's fertility rate drops to 2.2 in 2025. An anomaly in sub-Saharan Africa, where the average is 4.2.r/Futurology · 451 upvotes · 79 comments · Oct 30, 22:18 UTC · capetownetc.com
- Josh Inglis gets ran out vs South Africa, Day 5 of the 3rd Testr/sports · 169 upvotes · 102 comments · Oct 31, 14:54 UTC · v.redd.it
- A South Africa fan offering sandpaper to Nathan Lyon, a teammate of Steven Smith, who was caught ball-tampering in the same ground eight years agor/sports · 138 upvotes · 28 comments · Oct 31, 20:36 UTC · v.redd.it
Timeline on Reddit
- First thread we found, in r/Futurology: “South Africa's fertility rate drops to 2.2 in 2025. An anomaly in sub-Saharan Africa, where the average is 4.2.”
- The biggest thread so far is posted in r/Futurology (451 upvotes, 79 comments by our last count).
- The story reaches r/sports: “Josh Inglis gets ran out vs South Africa, Day 5 of the 3rd Test”
- Latest thread in our sample, in r/sports.
What people are asking
Questions from the most-upvoted comments in the biggest threads. They show what people still want to know; they are questions, not answers.
- “Why single out South Africa?” — asked in r/Futurology
- “What explains their success at lowering fertility rates when the rest of sub-Saharan Africa is unable to do the same?” — asked in r/Futurology
How this page is made
SubMouse watches dozens of large, safe-for-work subreddits and Google's trending searches. When several communities start talking about the same event at the same time, we group those threads into one story and publish this page, then refresh it while the story keeps rising. The counts are ours; everything said about the event itself is quoted and credited to the post or outlet it comes from. Claims in Reddit posts are unverified unless an outlet confirms them. Upvote and comment counts come from Reddit's public data via the Arctic Shift archive and can lag. Spotted a mistake? Tell us. Not affiliated with Reddit.