Why Has The Birth Rate In The US Fallen To The Lowest Level Recorded?

Why Has The Birth Rate In The US Fallen To The Lowest Level Ever Recorded

MICHAEL SNYDER

The birth rate in the United States just keeps setting one dismal record after another.  In fact, according to the CDC it just dropped to the lowest level ever recorded.  We are literally not even replacing ourselves, and that has all sorts of implications for our future.  

For instance, if we don't produce enough offspring, there simply will not be enough workers to support Social Security and Medicare and those programs will inevitably collapse.  A society with lots of old people and relatively few young people will result in poverty for everyone.  So the truth is that the birth rate crisis is going to ultimately affect all of us.

In order for the population of our nation to remain perfectly stable, women need to be giving birth to an average of 2.1 children because not all children make it to adulthood.

Sadly, the birth rate in the United States is now way below replacement level.

The CDC just announced that the birth rate in the U.S. fell below 1.6 children per woman in 2024...

The United States' total fertility rate fell to a record low in 2024, dipping below 1.6 children per woman, according to new federal data released Thursday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). This marks a significant demographic milestone for a country that once stood apart among developed nations for maintaining a replacement-level birth rate of around 2.1 children per woman.

Our society is not growing.

Our society is dying.

If you go back to the early 1960s, our birth rate was hovering around 3.5 children per woman, but it has been on a downward trend ever since...

In the early 1960s, the U.S. total fertility rate was around 3.5, but plummeted to 1.7 by 1976 after the Baby Boom ended. It gradually rose to 2.1 in 2007 before falling again, aside from a 2014 uptick. The rate in 2023 was 1.621 but inched down in 2024 to 1.599, according to the CDC's National Center for Health Statistics.

So what has caused such a dramatic shift?

According to CBS News, on average U.S. women are waiting longer to have children, and many are choosing never to have children at all...

The U.S. was once among only a few developed countries with a rate that ensured each generation had enough children to replace itself -- about 2.1 kids per woman. But it has been sliding in America for close to two decades as more women are waiting longer to have children or never taking that step at all.

I think that it is important to also point out that many couples simply can't have children today.

Infertility has been steadily rising among women, and among men sperm counts have been falling precipitously since the 1970s.

If we do not do something about this, eventually most males will simply be unable to produce offspring at all.

For couples that are able to produce babies, many are putting off parenthood due to the rising cost of living.

Most Americans are just barely scraping by from month to month these days, and having a kid is really expensive.

In fact, it takes hundreds of thousands of dollars to raise a single child to adulthood in the United States...

Raising a child from birth to age 18 in the United States can cost between $200,000 and $310,000, according to some sources. It is even pricier in some states, including Massachusetts, where families can spend up to $650,000.

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