U.S. fertility rates collapse - historic declines across all races

[Demovictory9]

Women are now having fewer babies and at older ages than in the past three decades, a change that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) reported this year, and which was confirmed this week with the release of additional data that shows that the trend holds across races and for both urban and rural areas.

The CDC said Wednesday that the total fertility rate — a theoretical figure that estimates the number of births a woman will have in her lifetime — fell by 18 percent from 2007 to 2017 in large metropolitan areas, 16 percent in smaller metro areas and 12 percent in rural areas. A similar downward trend holds for white, black and Hispanic women.



Theories — social, economic, scientific, environmental — about why fertility is falling so sharply in the United States abound. Many agree that cultural shifts, such as women getting married later and focusing on education or work, play a big role. But there’s considerable debate, some of it more political than evidence-based, about other possible causes.


Economist Lyman Stone has blamed the United States’ less-than-generous parental leave and pay policies. Human Life International, a missionary group, blames “pro-abortion population control groups like Planned Parenthood.” Tucker Carlson claims it has to do with immigration, arguing that immigrants drive wages down, which hurts the attractiveness of men as potential spouses — “thus reducing fertility.”

Some have even wondered whether the decline might be influenced by sperm quality. Recent medical journal publications have indicated that exposure to pollutants might be harming reproductive health, including the motility and quantity of sperm, which could delay childbearing and overall fertility.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2018/10/19/us-fertility-rates-collapse-finger-pointing-blame-follow/?utm_term=.1e6bb457123d

[Sanity Claws]

1. Young people are heavily in debt from education

Many jobs don't pay a living wage.
If I were in the situation faced by young people, I would be reluctant to have a baby since I could not afford to take care of it.

[Ilsa]

2. It's hard to raise a large family when

a career involves long hours or a lower paying job requires a second lower paying job. Kids are expensive. My guess is that couples have sex less frequently, too, but that's just a guess.

[JHan]

3. Personally, I'm uninterested in biologically having a kid. I may adopt at some point though.

[dalton99a]

4. Kids are fucking expensive

It's not cheap to raise a child in the U.S.

[Squinch]

5. Good. We're wrecking the earth. Fewer of us would have a better quality of life.

[Skidmore]

6. Cue the forced birthers and advent of the Handmaid's Tale culture. nt

[donkeypoofed]

7. This is one reason stopping/slowing immigration is really bad

And not just on a racial hatred bias either. The country needs immigration to sustain itself in the future. But all your geriatric racist Repukelicans don't realize that, but then again, they'll all be dead when the results are realized so what do they care.

[grantcart]

8. Both Forbes and WSJ ran in depth articles why we need to increase immigration

The same week we started taking children from asylum seekers

[Wellstone ruled]

9. Two major reasons,

Less people are blinded by Religion. And,people just can not afford Kids.

[Hekate]

10. It's hardly a "collapse." However our native population is aging, and immigrants are definitely ...

...a plus in keeping the overall population young and vibrant.

Unless you're one of those people who'd rather die out than see the demography become browner.

[Achilleaze]

11. Crappy food and filthy environments combine to ...

degenerate human health in many ways

[smirkymonkey]

12. Is this necessarily a bad thing?

There are too many people in the world as it is. I think that lower fertility rates are a good thing for the planet. If we don't curb our own fertility, nature will cull the herd for us.

Besides, does this really surprise anyone? Stagnant wages, student debt, the increasing costs of housing, health care and just about everything else, including child care. Destruction of the environment, political and economic insecurity, threats of wars and increasingly violent societies. Who wants to bring a child into such a world? People are struggling everywhere. I'm sure a lot of them are thinking twice before deciding to make such a commitment.

[raccoon]

13. Because times are hard for a lot of people. In the 1930s the birth rate fell too.

Easterlin hypothesis - Wikipedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Easterlin_hypothesis

Easterlin hypothesis. The Easterlin hypothesis (Easterlin 1961, 1969, 1973) states that the positive relationship between income and fertility is dependent on relative income. It is considered the first viable and a still leading explanation for mid-twentieth century baby booms.

[GulfCoast66]

14. This is the result of giving women the power over their own bodies

It happens in every nation that achieves a level of prosperity and women’s rights.

Changing this is the real goal of the religious right. Birth Control is in their target once abortion is banned.

[Cal Carpenter]

15. Our reality is so dystopian and I've talked to other childfree women my age about this

By the time I was in my late 20s, I had pretty much decided I wasn't ever having children for a variety of reasons. The fate of the world in terms of environment and economy wasn't a conscious part of that decision that I can remember, but 15-20 years later I wonder if it figured on some level. In any case, I have no regrets about remaining childfree.

In recent years, I've talked to many other GenX women who don't have kids, and in a lot of cases this was part of their conscious decision to remain childfree. It is hard to imagine conjuring enough nurturing hope for the future of our hypothetical children. I don't mean to sound all dire, nihilistic or doom-and-gloom-y, and I am lucky to know lots of awesome kids being raised by amazing parents (or an amazing parent). I am also grateful that they are having children. But there is no doubt that the way we live will be radically effected by climate change and economic problems in the next 50 to 100 years.

I can't get past the paywall to read the whole article, so maybe they address this, but I wonder if they are taking this into consideration. It does overlap to some extent with some of the issues they mention in the excerpt, but not explicitly.

[vercetti2021]

16. I would never bring a child into this current world

It's not only cruel to do that, but it's unethical at this point in time. Kids are expensive, hard to raise and with the growing tech industry, more easily they will lack skills because they'll rely on technology to do it for them. Sadly I've seen it in my 7 year old cousin and my friends little girl who is 4. Both of them have relied heavily on TV and electronics to entertain them.

My friend told me before I came into the picture. She never really took her daughter anywhere, not even the park. Since I'm so willing to do stuff physical like my grandfather did with me, she's more active physically. She is the closest thing I would have to a kid, I love her but it would be hard to take care of her and spend the money to do so. It's hard for my friend who got divorced because her husband cheated on her and not only was a drug abuser, but a proud boy as well. She had a hard time getting out of that lifestyle, but she did. Now she has the hardest job in the world. Being a single parent.

[roamer65]

17. We need to push the rates even lower.

Remove all tax incentives for having children and offer cash payments/tax credits to men and women who do not have children. Also, extra incentives for those who undergo permanent birth control procedures. This needs to happen worldwide.

Ensure those men and women who participate are taken care of in their old age.

The future of the human race depends on it.