Families are smaller and people are waiting longer to have children than in years past, according to an NBC News analysis of data released this week by the National Center for Health Statistics.
The US teen birth rate hit an all-time low in 2019, the NCHS report shows, with fewer than 1.7 births per 100 teen girls ages 15 to 19. report, but it is still higher than rates in many other high-income countries.
The general fertility rate in the US decreased from 2015 to 2020show additional NCHS data, reaching a low of fewer than 6 births per 100 women ages 15-44. (The rate then increased 1% from 2020 to 2021although the general trend is still downward).
The US birth rate, the number of births per 1,000 women, decreased from 2018 to 2019 among women ages 20 to 30, but increased among women ages 35 to 44, the report showed.
The data also revealed that from 2015 to 2019, 24 was the average age at which a woman gave birth to her first child, while the average man had his first at 27. In previous years, those averages were 23 for women. women and 25 for men. .
Sociologists pointed to some factors that may explain these trends. One is that contraception has become more reliable, while the other is that people are marrying later in life and most births in the US still occur within marriage.
«People wait to have kids until they feel ready, have a good job, feel mature enough to be a parent, feel like they’re going to have a good partner,» said Karen Benjamin Guzzo, director of the Center for Carolina Population at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Another possible, though less influential, factor is medically assisted reproductive techniques, such as in vitro fertilization, which are helping some people to have children at later ages (mainly those with high incomes or service coverage as a benefit through from your employer).
On average, people in the US are also choosing to have fewer children, according to the NCHS report: In 2018, the average woman had about one biological child, up from more than three in 1960.
The size of the average American family, defined as people related by birth, marriage or adoption who live together, is now about three people, up from almost four in 1960.
Sociologists suggested that these trends can be attributed, in large part, to financial concerns.
«The economic downturn of 2007-2008 really made people say, ‘Wow, having a kid is a big and expensive commitment,'» said Julia McQuillan, a sociology professor at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.
Guzzo said birth rates never fully recovered after the Great Recession, likely due to factors like student loan debt, high home prices and a shortage of full-time jobs. Childcare costs and a lack of family leave can also lead people to put off having children or opt out of parenting altogether, he said.
«America doesn’t have paid family leave. We have a really shaky child care system, as the pandemic has pointed out. We don’t have sick leave for most people. So there are a lot of things to consider before you decide to have children in this environment,» Guzzo said.
However, fertility rates vary by region, with the central US states having higher rates than other parts of the country.
However, the Supreme Court’s decision to quash Roe v. Wade and new abortion restrictions that have been put in place in many states could influence future fertility trends in the US, according to Michael Rendall, director of the Maryland Center for Population Research.
«It could be that the overturning of Roe v. Wade works against the continued decline in the birth rate,» he said.
