Two Key Factors in Lowest Birth Rates in the U.S. for 2024
The dire statistics that have been making the headlines about the US birth rates dropping to all-time lows in over a century can be directly related to two things (certainly not JUST these two)...
1) The state of our economy and high rates of inflation.
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2) Women waiting longer and longer to have children.
The State of Our Economy
FACT --- it's incredibly hard to be able to afford children in today's economic landscape. With inflation rates sending costs through the roof, just being able to put food on the table is a huge problem. The cost of groceries alone seem to have no end in its climb, despite inflation starting to see a flatline. Our grocery bill for just myself and my husband is $300 every two weeks --- and frankly that's because we try to eat organic/fresh foods and cook our own meals. It would be cheaper if we just stuck to processed foods and I know that. That's the cost to live a somewhat healthy lifestyle at your kitchen table for TWO ADULTS. And that's crazy! Am I right?
The price of everything has also caused households to down-right almost REQUIRE a two-person income just to keep a mortgage on a house or rent a house or apartment. Which means children have a lot less of a parental presence in the home --- and that's a BIG reason for me to advocate for remote work (for women especially). In the last few years, because of the effects of COVID-19, we saw both parents being more present at home and available to their children. Its created healthier, more mentally stable children growing up into healthier, more mentally stable adults.
And because US households are having to return back to the office, unable to keep a parent in the house during reasonable off-school hours, almost requiring that two-person income, the cost of day care has astronomically risen in the last 5 years. On average the cost to send ONE CHILD to day care is roughly around ~$320 PER WEEK. If you're like me and not into the math of it all, that's $1,280 a month for ONE CHILD. ONE. That's higher than most long-standing mortgage payments (ya know those you've had for 15+ years). That's CRAZY! Am I right?
Now, let's add to that the average mortgage payment as of 2024 for most families. And what is that average you ask? Well... that's topping out at over $2,100/month and that's assuming you make the 10% downpayment that's required on a house that is on average ~$340,000. Do you have $34,000 sitting in your bank to make that kind of downpayment? I don't know many that do in the last 8 years or so.
And not to mention that salaries haven't kept up with the cost of housing, like at all! You need to make collectively over $106,000 a year to comfortably afford a home (and certainly not in California, New York, Seattle, Boston, or other highly coveted metro areas) as of 2024. And the average household income as of 2024 is roughly ~$81,000. How are we as Americans going to make up that difference?
I mean, me personally, I invest my money. I put a lot of it into my savings. I was laid off in August of 2023 and saved enough to live 12 months comfortably without worry. I also have a very complex illness, Cystic Fibrosis (CF), that absolutely DRAINS my bank account with the amount of co-pays and deductibles and so on I have to pay every single year. I mean I have one life-saving medication that costs ~$300,000 a year! Yup, a YEAR. It is offset by having good insurance and applying to all the co-pay assistance programs, etc. but still. CF is a major reason as to why I didn't get to have children of my own. 56% of females born with CF have reproductive challenges (I am one of them!) and 98% of males born with CF as completely sterile. Did you know that 51% of US households are dealing with a complex chronic illness? Yup, that's 129 million people... and that's just households with ONE chronic illness, there are households dealing with multiple chronic illnesses. I dunno a single reason that's more prevalent (and I just stated all the ones above) as to why people aren't having children than having to afford health care and having parents who unfortunately have complex chronic conditions. We, Americans, are generally sicker than we have ever been before.
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And the cost and access to health care is a HUGE PROBLEM. I mean the average payment for health insurance is roughly ~$703/month and that's for individuals. Add in a spouse and a couple of kids to that equation and its unsustainable! In this article from CNN, they state "For families, the total annual premium averaged at $23,968 — or about $1,997 per month." That's INSANE! Am I right?
Now, go up on all these costs I've just mentioned and start tallying that up. That's why birth rates are the lowest they've been in over a century! We're really going to get to a point where that one movie with Clive Owen and Julianne Moore, Children of Men (2006), is going to be our REALITY!
Women Waiting Longer to Have Kids
Now, for the second key factor I have listed up top. Women are just waiting longer and longer to have kids, its just a fact!
And while I am a feminist and truly believe that women should have the same opportunities to build their careers and go for their dreams, biology is involved and there is NOTHING we can do about that. Unlike men, who can have children for as long as they have a foot outside the grave, that's NOT the case for women. We are born with a set number of eggs which basically expire by age 50, and you don't wanna be having a baby at 50, either. It does become a very risky endeavor past age of 40, healthwise. And men never have to worry about this! The "on us" is on the woman.
There is also the part where the laws being passed in our country around women's reproductive rights have made women grow more and more hypervigilant about having a child --- especially in state where "full bans" are enacted. The worry in women about whether their own wellbeing will be side-tracked in leui of an unborn fetus or that medicinal birth control will be overly regulated and become unavailable is at an all time high in today's political climate. With commentary provided by Justice Clearence Thomas, which questioned the basis for a prior Supreme Court case granting the right to contraception, the ability for a woman to decide their own reproductive rights is being theatened to a point of real concern. And that more often than not, equates to a deferring of birthing a child to a later time, hoping that things either turn around or we find a mate that is "worth having a baby with". I know the ladies feel me on this!
Because traditionally men have been terrible at being involved fathers, women are far more scared to have children with men that will NOT offer support in co-parenting said child. The statistics on this are pretty abyssmal, to be honest, as 1 in 4 children live without a biological, step, or adoptive father in the home. That's a total of 17.8 million children in 2023. That's crazy! And this is definitely a primary reason as to why women are waiting to have children. Women have been "closed for business", if you know what I mean. No kids here!
Now, let's address the other top reason... the wage gap between men and women. Even if we've made several fateful strides towards pay equality, it is still a thing! A man doing a particular job is still paid more than a woman doing that same exact job, that's just fact. According to the Federal Register, women working full-time and year-round are paid an average of 84 cents for every dollar paid to men in 2024.
Given that women are deemed to be the primary caregiver for children AND (as I stated above) are left to support these children almost completely on their own, depending on their income alone, it has become too disruptive to a woman to have children and many choose NOT TO. Its just too taxing.
Which brings me to the last point, women just don't want to get pregnant when they are focused on developing their careers. Sooooo, they defer and then find themselves UNABLE to have children --- they wait too long. That's probably the number one reason why birth rates are down. The truth is we're NOT providing women with the financial and emotional support they need to have children. That's the bottom line.
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Now, on to how YOU feel about this hot topic! Comment down below and tell me if you agree with my takes or if you think there are other more pertinent issues in America that are affecting our birth rates. I'd love to know!