The economy is hitting the younger generation hard. Millennials and Gen Z are facing sky-high mortgage rates, rising home prices and inflation, and this is slowing some traditional or historical milestones, such as having a baby.
Indeed, women are starting families later and having fewer children, and some are choosing not to start a family at all, according to data report released Thursday by the National Center for Health Statistics at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. But the most stunning statistic in the report is that the total U.S. fertility rate hit a record low in 2023, falling to 1.62 births per woman. This is well below the “replacement rate,” or the number of births needed to satisfy the size of the older generation, which is 2.1 births.
“For the first time in the history of our country, a 30-year-old man or woman is not doing as well as his or her parents did at 30. This is the destruction of the social contract.” Scott Gallowayprofessor at New York University’s Stern School of Business, said in a recent interview interview With Morning, Joe. Only 27% of adults aged 30 to 34 have one child, but in 1990 the percentage was 60%, he said.
“People are giving up on America,” Galloway said. “They are not optimistic about this. They have no children”. Indeed, a report from the National Center for Health Statistics found that birth rates have declined among women ages 15 to 39. Overall, there were about 3.59 million births in the U.S. in 2023, down 2% from 2022, according to the report.
Moreover, the birth rate among minority women is falling even faster. According to the report, total fertility fell by 5% for black, American Indian and Alaska Native women and by 3% for Asian women. This is largely due to rising morbidity and mortality rates among women of color. Peggy Robertssays New York City-licensed Certified Women’s Health Nurse Practitioner. Luck.
These trends “make women feel apprehensive about the risks associated with pregnancy and childbirth,” she says. “Consequently, women choose to give up the prospect of having children.”
Why are fewer women having children?
There are a number of factors influencing the decline in fertility, but personal finances and career choices continue to be at the forefront of women’s minds during the years when they traditionally devoted themselves to having children. Many women delay having children until they are 30 or 40 years old in order to succeed in their careers.
This is especially true for some of the most successful women in business, including Indra Nooyi, former CEO of PepsiCo. While Nooyi undoubtedly had a distinguished career, she always felt guilty about juggling caring for her two daughters with work, she said. Luck at the 2014 Aspen Ideas Festival.
“The body clock and the career clock are in complete conflict with each other,” she said. Plus, women reach their peak earnings at age 40and the working age for women continues to rise, according to the 2023 forecast. report from the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania.
According to Nooyi, women in their 30s and 40s traditionally devote themselves to career development, but this timing also coincides with the expected date of birth of children. Children become teenagers when their mothers are promoted to middle management, and “that’s when your husband becomes a teenager,” she joked. In addition, as children grow older, mothers’ aging parents also need care.
“We screwed up,” she said. “We can’t have it all.”
As more women “decide to remain childless” in order to pursue higher education, RobertsPlus says, “women are expressing concern about the lack of available partners to form long-term relationships and start a family.”
Fertility rates have also been impacted by increased awareness of contraception, says Janet Choi, a board-certified reproductive endocrinologist and chief medical officer for fertility services. Proginiatells Luck. More women now have access to and use of contraceptives. “This is especially true for long-acting reversible contraceptives in recent years,” she says.