US birth rate: 30 year low

[BeginnersMind]

The birth rate in the US is now at a 30-year low without much end in sight.

 

 

The trend worldwide is similar, with higher income correlating to lower birth rates (and most closely correlating to education of women). The higher incomes result mostly in lower birth rates among the young(first child birth age in the US has gone from 21 to 27 in the last 50 years)--meaning the biggest decrease is for young and unprepared parents (mostly moms), the result of which is more "wanted" kids, with better prepared parents. This can only be good news.

 

As India's economy and education rise, and maybe even someday Africa, our world population is projected to peak somewhere in the mid 2000s and then begin to gradually decline. The elbow room on planet earth should be OK for our kids!

 

 

WSJ Article

[Nanker]

What role do abortions have in the declining birth rate?

[BeginnersMind]

5 minutes ago, Nanker said:

What role do abortions have in the declining birth rate?

 

Abortions are on the decline according to Wiki via the CDC, so not much.

 

Year	Number of abortions reported to CDC	Induced abortions ratio per 1,000 live births	CDC Abortion Surveillance Report
1970	193,491	52	[3]
1971	485,816	137	[3]
1972	586,760	180	[3]
1973	615,831	196	[3]
1974	763,476	242	[3]
1975	854,853	272	[3]
1976	988,267	312	[3]
1977	950,675	325	[3]
1978	1,157,776	347	[3]
1979	1,251,921	358	[4]
1980	1,297,606	359	[5]
1981	1,300,760	358	[6]
1982	1,303,980	354	[3]
1983	1,268,987	349	[3]
1984	1,333,521	364	[7]
1985	1,328,570	354	[7]
1986	1,328,112	354	[8]
1987	1,353,671	356	[8]
1988	1,371,285	352	[9]
1989	1,396,658	346	[10]
1990	1,429,247	345	[11]
1991	1,388,937	339	[12]
1992	1,359,145	335	[13]
1993	1,330,414	321	[14]
1994	1,267,415	334	[14]
1995	1,210,883	311	[15]
1996	1,221,585	314	[16]
1997	1,186,039	274	[17]
1998	884,273	264	[18]
1999	861,789	256	[19]
2000	857,475	246	[20]
2001	853,485	246	[21]
2002	854,122	246	[22]
2003	848,163	241	[23]
2004	839,226	238	[24]
2005	820,151	233	[25]
2006	852,385	236	[26]
2007	827,609	231	[27]
2008	825,564	234	[28]
2009	789,507	227	[26]
2010	765,651	228	[29]
2011	730,322	219	[30]
2012	699,202	210	[31]
2013	664,435	200	[32]
2014	652,639	193	[33][34]
2015	638,169	188	[35]

Edited May 15, 2019 by BeginnersMind

[Tiberius]

More immigrants needed. Jobs already not being filled. We are the world! 

[Q-baby!]

23 minutes ago, Nanker said:

What role do abortions have in the declining birth rate?

Nice try Wanker. 

[Nanker]

About 30 million fewer Americans by just those raw stats alone. Of course those 30 million would have produced several more millions over time - if they ever had the chance. 

[Q-baby!]

3 minutes ago, Nanker said:

About 30 million fewer Americans by just those raw stats alone. Of course those 30 million would have produced several more millions over time - if they ever had the chance. 

Most of them would probably have been shot dead by their fellow Americans anyway. 

[SoCal Deek]

Why have a kid now? The world is ending in 11.5 years. Those babies won’t even be out of elementary school when we all melt.

[GG]

Alyssa Milano was prescient

[Koko78]

 

[DC Tom]

Good.  Maybe traffic will get better.

[RochesterRob]

2 hours ago, BeginnersMind said:

The birth rate in the US is now at a 30-year low without much end in sight.

 

 

The trend worldwide is similar, with higher income correlating to lower birth rates (and most closely correlating to education of women). The higher incomes result mostly in lower birth rates among the young(first child birth age in the US has gone from 21 to 27 in the last 50 years)--meaning the biggest decrease is for young and unprepared parents (mostly moms), the result of which is more "wanted" kids, with better prepared parents. This can only be good news.

 

As India's economy and education rise, and maybe even someday Africa, our world population is projected to peak somewhere in the mid 2000s and then begin to gradually decline. The elbow room on planet earth should be OK for our kids!

 

 

WSJ Article

  From my vantage point birthrates are down in general among younger women/couples regardless of education or employment.  The problem is immigrants seem to be offsetting that.  Look at Western Europe.  The native people have had declining birthrates for a while now while the birthrate of recent immigrants appears to be completely offsetting that.  All this is fine if immigrants want to adapt to the host country but in a lot of cases this is not happening.  I would not count on the children of these immigrants to be happy worker drones in the economy as one poster here is speculating.  

[Buffalo_Gal]

There are now better forms of birth control, a morning-after pill, access to early abortion, etc. and people take advantage of those options.

My great-grandmother once told my grandfather (her youngest) that the perfect family size is "one".
He responded, "But you had six children!"
Her response, "But we didn't have access to the birth control methods you do today."

My great-grandmother... who died before I was born said that. 

Big families were partly - we need the labor for the farm - and partly - it is very difficult to prevent pregnancy.  Once America moved on from an agricultural society, once health-care got better so you didn't have a cemetery full of dead children that needed to be "replaced",  once birth control became more accessible and women had control over birth control methods,  once women had more options than to just stay home and bake cookies   ... in other words a lot of things have contributed to birth rate stagnation and decline. Cost of living plays a part - kids ain't cheap (and I'm not talking education - even the cost of childcare when young is astronomical).

So many reasons and many are personal choices. Is there a solution? Well, I am sure the Democrats will say more illegals. The EU tried doing that to bolster declining birth rates. Look at how well that turned out for them!

[BeginnersMind]

6 minutes ago, Buffalo_Gal said:

There are now better forms of birth control, a morning-after pill, access to early abortion, etc. and people take advantage of those options.

My great-grandmother once told my grandfather (her youngest) that the perfect family size is "one".
He responded, "But you had six children!"
Her response, "But we didn't have access to the birth control methods you do today."

My great-grandmother... who died before I was born said that. 

Big families were partly - we need the labor for the farm - and partly - it is very difficult to prevent pregnancy.  Once America moved on from an agricultural society, once health-care got better so you didn't have a cemetery full of dead children that needed to be "replaced",  once birth control became more accessible and women had control over birth control methods,  once women had more options than to just stay home and bake cookies   ... in other words a lot of things have contributed to birth rate stagnation and decline. Cost of living plays a part - kids ain't cheap (and I'm not talking education - even the cost of childcare when young is astronomical).

So many reasons and many are personal choices. Is there a solution? Well, I am sure the Democrats will say more illegals. The EU tried doing that to bolster declining birth rates. Look at how well that turned out for them!

 

I don’t see it as a problem. This was meant to provide very good news. The article is about the US, but we’ve followed Europe and most of the rest of the world is on a trend where education of women and contraception access further reduces birth rates. 

 

The population isn’t going to zero just because birth rates are declining, but fewer total people on earth in the long term may not be a bad thing. 

Edited May 15, 2019 by BeginnersMind

[KD in CA]

He’s even solving the population crisis?

 

Thanks President Trump!!

[BeginnersMind]

13 minutes ago, KD in CA said:

He’s even solving the population crisis?

 

Thanks President Trump!!

 

Grabbing = C-blocking

[RochesterRob]

17 minutes ago, BeginnersMind said:

 

I don’t see it as a problem. This was meant to provide very good news. The article is about the US, but we’ve followed Europe and most of the rest of the world is on a trend where education of women and contraception access further reduces birth rates. 

 

The population isn’t going to zero just because birth rates are declining, but fewer total people on earth in the long term may not be a bad thing. 

  Muslim women have access to education and birth control?  Are they allowed to say "no" when the man of the house is feeling horny?  I see it as a problem if immigrants do not want to adapt to the host country.  A lot of us here will probably live for a while yet and don't want to see growing contempt when we are out and about in terms of our culture.

[DC Tom]

25 minutes ago, Buffalo_Gal said:

There are now better forms of birth control, a morning-after pill, access to early abortion, etc. and people take advantage of those options.
 

 

From what I've heard the past few weeks, that's all untrue.  Because if we're denying access to late-term abortions to women, we're turning them in to nothing more than "breeding factories."

 

Yes, I actually saw that.  Didn't bother pointing out that the idea women only have control over their actions in their third trimester was more misogynist and infantilizing to women than the worst thing I've ever heard Republicans say.

[RochesterRob]

28 minutes ago, Buffalo_Gal said:

There are now better forms of birth control, a morning-after pill, access to early abortion, etc. and people take advantage of those options.

My great-grandmother once told my grandfather (her youngest) that the perfect family size is "one".
He responded, "But you had six children!"
Her response, "But we didn't have access to the birth control methods you do today."

My great-grandmother... who died before I was born said that. 

Big families were partly - we need the labor for the farm - and partly - it is very difficult to prevent pregnancy.  Once America moved on from an agricultural society, once health-care got better so you didn't have a cemetery full of dead children that needed to be "replaced",  once birth control became more accessible and women had control over birth control methods,  once women had more options than to just stay home and bake cookies   ... in other words a lot of things have contributed to birth rate stagnation and decline. Cost of living plays a part - kids ain't cheap (and I'm not talking education - even the cost of childcare when young is astronomical).

So many reasons and many are personal choices. Is there a solution? Well, I am sure the Democrats will say more illegals. The EU tried doing that to bolster declining birth rates. Look at how well that turned out for them!

  I generally agree but see the advance in medicine that happened after the Civil War for the reason households grew larger for a time.  Rural couples reproduced at a rate based on what they knew from generations past rather than what they could expect in terms of medical science.  Also, we don't like to think of our ancestors as frisky but they only had so much to occupy their time when not doing chores and they probably knew what we know today in that it is pleasurable.

[Q-baby!]

22 hours ago, KD in CA said:

He’s even solving the population crisis?

 

Thanks President Trump!!

Abortion does as well.