The US birthrate is at its lowest point in 32 years.
The US birthrate is at its lowest for the first time in 32 years, reported Bill Chappell for NPR, citing a new report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The decline occurred for nearly all racial and age groups.
This report from CDC also reported that today’s job security, political climate, and a negative view on America’s future are all contributing to the birthrate decline.
“Not a whole lot of things are going good, and that’s haunting young people in particular, more than old people,” Dowell Myers, a demographer at the University of Southern California.
The main reason: Kids are expensive
To raise a child to age 18 in America, it’ll cost parents an average of $230,000, according to a Merrill Lynch report. The percentage of respondents (2,500 American parents) who said their finances played a role in becoming a parent has increased by 40% since 1970. Having kids can cause family spending patterns and investment patterns to shift, according to the report.
Finances are one of the top reasons why American millennials aren’t having kids or are having fewer kids than they considered ideal, reported Business Insider’s Shana Lebowitz, citing a survey by The New York Times.
The survey polled 1,858 men and women aged 20 to 45 — 64% said childcare is too expensive, 44% said they can’t afford to have more children, and 43% said they waited to have kids because of financial instability (multiple answers were allowed).
