A new study has found that U.S. birth rates have continued to drop for decades and that nearly half of all American women under the age of 45 do not have kids.
Approximately 52% of women in the age range of 15 to 44 gave birth between 2015 to 2019 — a decline from nearly 55% in the prior four-year period, reports a study from the CDC’s National Center for Health Statistics Tuesday.
There were also fewer biological fathers of the same age found as compared to before. From 2015 to 2019, around 40% of men had parented a child — less than the previous figure of 44% from 2011 to 2015.
More women have been giving birth later in life than what has historically been observed.
Declining American birth rates are a topic seldom discussed in mainstream media. Some conservative commentators have addressed the topic, including well-known Fox News show host Tucker Carlson, who spoke on it in April.
“Neo-Liberal leaders hate the idea of big families in the same way they hate the idea of religious faith because both are a challenge to their power,” Carlson said at the time.
Tucker Carlson On The Ruling Class Getting Angry When Elon Musk & Viktor Orbán Talk About Family & Birth Rates
"Neo-Liberal leaders hate the idea of big families in the same way they hate the idea of religious faith because both are a challenge to their power." pic.twitter.com/iLZ0zzaOuf
— The Columbia Bugle 🇺🇸 (@ColumbiaBugle) April 5, 2022
US women had an average birthrate of only 1.3 children in 2019 (the last year covered by the report), while men had 0.9 kids.
According to the study’s authors, many of these trends can be explained by women obtaining higher levels of education and dedicating more time to a career. Other offered reasons include changing family values, financial worries, higher use of contraception, and relationship instability.
The number of women having their first child at age 35 or older grew 9x between 1972 and 2021, the report said.
(CDC)
The report stated that the trends have resulted in women earning more money but cautioned that delays in childbearing can result in fertility problems.
“Having a first child at older ages has been associated with a positive impact on women’s wages and career paths, in addition to having a positive impact on their children because they are more likely to have parents with greater family and economic stability,” wrote the authors.
“A potential negative consequence of delayed childbearing is that women are attempting to have children when their fecundity (ability to have children) is declining.”
Also discovered by the study is that more children are coming into this world out of wedlock, with approximately half of U.S. births occurring before marriage in 2019.
