- The American birth rate has reached a historic hollow while the Americans are faced with the increase in childcare services and lifestyle.
- Millennials and generation Z delay parenting for financial stability.
- However, many Americans say they want more children than they have.
Americans want more children – but many cannot swing the daycare, grocery store and higher household bills.
The American birth rate has been declining regularly for more than a decade. The general fertility rate reached a low history in 2023, according to the latest Center for Disease Control Data available. Between 2014 and 2020, the CDC indicated that the birth rate had systematically fell by 2% per year.
These figures occur while millennials and genres wait longer to become parents: Americans are held more and more until they are more financially stable in the thirties and quarantine to have a baby or buy a house.
Financial experts, parents and young people told Business Insider that the birth rate problem is rooted in household budgets. Even if they wanted more children, some Americans said that they could not assume expenses.
“We spend so much money only on essential elements such as grocery store,” an adult without children of 26 years old in Grand Rapids, Michigan told Bi Liv. “It is difficult to imagine giving a child everything they might need or want.”
Gallup surveys in the summer of 2023 revealed that many Americans believe that the ideal number of children is more than they currently have. The polls, which interviewed at least 1,000 American adults aged 18 and over, reported that a plurality of people from zero to two children said that two are the ideal number.
The preference of Americans for larger families is also increasing. The share of adults who believe that three or more children is the ideal amount has jumped with four percentage points between 2018 and 2023 – reaching its highest point since 1971, according to Gallup data. Black adults, more religious adults and young adults are more likely to promote larger families. Overall, nine out of 10 adults said they had children or would like to have children.
However, if the Americans will choose to develop their family are more complicated. Childcare costs exceed average wages in certain cities, the price of many staple food increases and health care continues to be expensive.
With an American population and an American workforce that ages quickly, the increase in the birth rate would be good news for the long-term economy. But some policies defenders have declared that the birth rate of America cannot be restored without relieving financial pressure for families and young people. Politicians such as children’s tax credit, childcare subsected by the government and basic income programs for parents have been tried in the United States as potential solutions.
“It is not only an individual parent problem,” said Anne Hedgepeth, main vice-president of policy and research to the conscious child of America. “That this is really a problem that we can solve, and we can do it for the benefit of parents, communities, our economy as a whole.”
Do you have a story to share on your finances? Contact this journalist at allisonkelly@businessinsider.com.
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