Americans aren't making enough babies to replace ourselves

[DonViejo]

Source: NBC News


Government researchers did not offer an explanation, but experts cited factors including changing economics and fewer teen pregnancies.

Jan. 10, 2019, 12:53 AM EST / Updated Jan. 10, 2019, 8:06 AM EST

By Linda Carroll and Shamard Charles, M.D.

Americans are having fewer and fewer babies, a new government report finds. In fact, we now aren’t making enough babies to replace ourselves.

For the population to reproduce itself at current numbers, the “total fertility rate” needs to be 2,100 births per 1,000 women of childbearing age over their lifetime, researchers for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said in their report, released early Thursday. But the latest data show a current rate of just 1,765.5 per 1,000, or 16 percent below the number needed to keep the population stable without additions through immigration.

The total fertility rate has been declining steadily for seven years, but the numbers for 2017 represent the biggest drop in recent history. The rate for 2016 was 1,820.5; for 2015, 1,843.5; and for 2014, 1,862.5.

The CDC offered no explanation for why the American fertility rate is dropping so precipitously.

Read more: https://www.nbcnews.com/health/womens-health/americans-aren-t-making-enough-babies-replace-ourselves-n956931

[Bernardo de La Paz]

1. Immigrants have more vitality & energy than stay-in-place folk in US or the home country. . . . nt

[dlk]

2. Given the Many Challenges That Especially Women Face, This is No Surprise

Low wages, workplace and childcare challenges all contribute to the low birthrate. We support what we value.

[cstanleytech]

3. Not surprising as babies cost money to raise and millions of people are barely making it

as things are on their own so adding a child would make things even harder.

[PSPS]

4. Isn't this good news? Overpopulation is a big problem.

[Traildogbob]

22. Spot on.

Overpopulation is a root of most of the planet's problems. We are approaching, if not AT, the carrying capacity of our habitat. The alarm has been blaring since the 1970's, with many studies warning of the results. and we ignore the threat, as we do with climate change. Too many rats in a cage results in disease, canabolism, inbreeding and end to the population. We are at the pinnacle of the J curve of population explosion. We must stop breeding like the Romneys and Santorums and religious TV reality freaks. But, help is on the way, Republican's will thin us out with diseases without health care, poison air, water, and food. Add to that, wars at the snap of a dictator's finger sending ot her's children to die for their prophets. God be blessin MURKKKA! Be Best! A planet full of Romeys, Trumps, Santorums, and religious nuts that ban birth control and outlaw abortion that will give the billionaire babies more wealth through taxing and robbing the Jesus babies.

[dugog55]

72. too many people

There is "Earth overshoot day" which is when all of humanity uses more from the Earth than it can regenerate in a year. In 2018 that day was August 1st. Experts say that about 3.5-4.5 billion people is all that is sustainable on this planet. We are way past that already. And if everyone on Earth lived with the wasteful, throwaway habits Americans have, it would only be about 1.5 billion people.

In the '60s and '70s there was a lot of talk about zero population growth. Not sure why that train of thought faded away, but like the above article states, there are too many nuts running around that take the Bible literally with its 'Be fruitful and multiply" and "dominion over the plants and animals".

[Nay]

27. Exactly! If there's one thing we need to do over the next hundred years, it is reducing

population. And keeping it reduced. No matter how many corporations will lose sales.

[denvine]

31. My thoughts exactly!

[eppur_se_muova]

48. There's an organization formerly known as Zero Population Growth ...

now the Population Connection ... I would be more interested in supporting Negative Population Growth. It's the only way much of our environment can possibly survive.

It's either NPG or WME -- widespread mass extinctions.

[smirkymonkey]

50. +1000

Totally agree!

[pansypoo53219]

64. indeed. REJOICE. but now, india & china etc.

[lunasun]

81. I believe chinas total fertility rate is lower than ours +declining . Their one child rule although

relaxed , hasn’t lead to any real population movement up ( probably a lot of the same reasons we keep on the decline )
China/Fertility rate
1.62 births per woman (2015)
United States of America
1.84 per woman(2015)

[BlancheSplanchnik]

52. + 100 billion gazillion.

It’s the underlying driver behind multitudes of chaos and destruction. We are an exterminator species. We have got to get control of our breeding, globally. (But especially industrialized countries.)

[lunatica]

70. In my view this is great news!

And there’s no need to even explain why since the answer is obvious!

We don’t need new babies. We need new blood, as in immigrants.

[wryter2000]

71. That was my first reaction

We'd all be better off if the fertility rate dropped all over the world. There are too damned many homo sapiens on this planet.

[Rizen]

75. I agree.

[vlyons]

5. Fewer babies is a good thing

the world is over-populated. Humans are destroying forests worldwide. Families with fewer children are better off economically. We don't need any more unwanted children. We have plenty of those already.

[sinkingfeeling]

43. +1000

[Ohiogal]

6. Our society

Is about as anti-child, anti-working parent as can be.

Unaffordable health insurance. No paid parental leave. Stagnant wages. Childcare costs unaffordable. Two incomes necessary to provide a decent household. Is it any wonder the birth rate is going down?

[OnlinePoker]

18. In Canada, we have good health care and parental leave.

Our fertility rate is still only 1.6 per woman of child bearing age. Even in Quebec, which has province-wide $7 a day daycare, the rate bumped up to 1.73 after its introduction but is now only 1.59.

[spooky3]

66. Good points. This downward trend in birth rates is occurring

in many countries.

At some point, societies may become accepting of people’s choosing the lives that are the best for them, and that being a parent is not the path for everyone, nor are people who make those choices “bad.”

[customerserviceguy]

85. Industrialization

is the primary reason behind reduced fertility rates. In an agricultural society, each new mouth to feed comes with a pair of legs and a pair of arms to bring in the harvest. In industrialized or service economies, children are an expensive luxury.

[CentralMass]

78. Add swaggering school loans.

[Boxerfan]

7. This should be a feature not a bug.....

Seeing as we as a species are so overpopulated that we have become parasitic . We are killing our planet & nature is screaming death throes.

We need more people like fire needs gasoline.

[Duppers]

63. Exactly!

Thank you!

[uppityperson]

8. Good. We need fewer people.

[jayfish]

9. Another Domino Falls on the Road to...

Last edited Thu Jan 10, 2019, 12:41 PM - Edit history (1)

Idiocracy.

Added the above for those who don't know what I'm referring to.

[Crowman2009]

10. In addition, I assume more people see what childbirth looks like and are scared shitless.

Sort of like when people don't want to eat meat when they find out where their dinner comes from.

[CousinIT]

33. +1 n/t

[Crowman2009]

11. Not to mention that some people have lived in struggling households and don't want to replicate it.

Which is I get enraged when people tell me and my wife how having kids are a great idea.

[lunasun]

82. +I know a lot of coupleslike that who grew up in situations they are just still too close to being

one or two strokes of bad luck away from returning . Also people who grew up in big families and are just not interested in living that way again even with one and say enough it stops with us
Those who see the world turning and say not a good time in general too

[yuiyoshida]

12. Most Americans are living paycheck to paycheck

and right now, not everyone is getting one. People would be crazy to plan for a future under this President. The sooner he is gone, the better, and when people celebrate, things will settle again.

[underpants]

13. Phillip Rivers is

QB for the Los Angeles Chargers. 9 kids

[jmowreader]

19. Quiverfulls are another problem

There’s got to be some middle ground between having no children (I have none and doubt I ever will) and “letting God decide how many children we will have” like the Duggar’s did.

[Crowman2009]

67. Well some people who make millions spend it on having lots of kids as opposed to expensive BS.

If he can pay for their education along with food & clothes, and all that other stuff--more power to him.

[Yavin4]

14. Maybe because it's fucking expensive to raise children in America

Economically, it's a major deterrent.

[Fullduplexxx]

15. America has made it too expensive

[ehrnst]

16. When women participate more in a society, the birth rate goes down by choice.

The best way to curb population overload is to elevate the status of women.

[llmart]

37. The more educated a woman is...

the less number of babies she has. Women are marrying at an older age too, so their number of fertile years are less.

I actually think this is a very good thing for our planet. I've always felt it was interesting that the birth rate in Italy where Catholics abound is one of the lowest on the planet. (Don't quote me because I just happen to remember this fact somewhere in my fact-filled mind.)

[ehrnst]

40. Me too. What is good for women really is good for the planet. (nt)

[RobinA]

44. Yeah, This

When I do genealogy and see how many babies those women had... And generally that's how many lived.

[Eyeball_Kid]

17. ZPG. Remember?

It was decades ago. But Christian fundamentalism and the "Reborn" movement erased the political will to move forward. Simply put, we can't keep increasing our national and world population. Industrialization has spread and resulted in fewer and fewer reasons to increase population, arithmetically, geometrically, or otherwise. As for the US population and why people have fewer children than ever before, I can site one good reason: money. Young parents simply don't make enough money to support a large family. And that's the bloody truth. Another: Family farms are a thing of the past, in which having large families is good for the survival of the family farm. The kids contributed to the economy of the farm. And that's one of the few reasons in the US for having a large family. But no more.

[progree]

25. Yes, I remember ZPG. I gave their successor organization, PopulationConnection.org my farm in 2016

The world has been adding a billion people every 12-13 years. We are well past the sustainable carrying capacity of the planet. They do education and lobbying about the issues that keep women here and worldwide from being able to access family planning services, including abortion.

For example, they push for laws that make contraception and abortion more obtainable here and abroad, And for getting rid of the Global Gag Rule, increasing U.S. Support for UNFPA, repealing the Hyde and Helms amendments, promoting the Global HER Act and the #FightforHER Campaign, Title X funding, fighting Trump’s Domestic Gag Rule, among others. And educating on these matters.

(Full disclosure: I got a charitable gift annuity in return, so, actuarially, I'm getting 3/4 of my farm donation back)

https://www.populationconnection.org/whatever-happened-zpg/

[inwiththenew]

20. Hopefully more countries follow suit

There are way too many people on this planet.

[Va Lefty]

21. Considering the current state of affairs in America, I'd say this bodes well for the planet

[Cold War Spook]

23. One of our children, our son and his wife, decided not to have children.

Our 4 other children have had 5 children. Our grand children have had 10 children, our great grand-children, with one on the way. I doubt that I will be alive when they start having children although I would like to have a great great-grand-child which is possible even if the oldest waits until after college. I'll only be 86.

[trev]

57. My sister and two of my best friends decided against it, too.

I thought--and still think--they made a good choice.

[Farmer-Rick]

24. It's all about child survival rate

https://www.ted.com/talks/hans_rosling_on_global_population_growth/transcript

As women realize their babies are NOT dying, they stop having so many children. It happens in every country with 90% or better child survival rate. Population stabilizes and drops. It's all about women knowing their babies will live to adulthood and beyond. So, they don't need to have more than 1 or 2 children.

And yeah our economy is sucky and it delays the age at which people get married. You can watch that through history. During downturns in the economy, people get married later and later in life, having fewer and fewer children. So, it is a combination of both these things.

But the one with the biggest impact is child survival rate.

[modrepub]

26. Count of My Immediate Nice and Nephews

Including my own kids along with my brother and sister there are 10 immediate offspring between 18 and 30. Only one has children (2). Of the remaining, one has a kid due in January (out of wedlock) and one is close to having kids; getting married in the spring but she has medical issues that may make having kids difficult. All but one have college educations.

If I was going to offer an explanation for my nieces and nephews lack of having children I'd say that finances have a lot to do with it. Those with college educations are still working off loans (as was I when my wife and I started discussing kids). Most of them do not have their own home (another source of debt). Half of them are not married or in serious relationship. I wouldn't call them irresponsible given their situations. Having kids shouldn't be taken lightly. I have met few adults with children who express sincere joy in their offspring. Most of us muddle through the process and hope things turn out well. If I'm being honest, I'd put myself in the later group. It's interesting having kids but it's very draining and not for the faint of heart. My kids and our nieces and nephews have their problems but they are relatively minor; they're healthy and for the most part mentally stable (not a minor accomplishment given the world they live in).

That said, declining birth rates are generally a symptom of an advanced economy. As my one professor said back in college, there's a direct correlation in the number of births in a society and a woman's stature in that society. The more equal in standing women are to men, the lower the birth rate. A point made by Tucker the other night, which I disagree with whole heartedly. Women have just as much right to pursue their own happiness and they are usually the ones most responsible for rearing children even in this day in age.

[dewsgirl]

28. As we continue our faster and faster slide into

Gilead. (The Handmaid's Tale)

[johnp3907]

29. OK.

[AlexSFCA]

30. it's a sign of improving women equality - a good thing

[CousinIT]

32. Well if Republicans had their way, women would be reproductive slaves

Locked up, strapped down and raped (bred) to produce more WHITE babies. ONLY white women and white men. They'd just as soon abort all the non-white ones.

They don't (can't) consider women even human. This is what's behind their constant advocacy for sexual & reproductive slavery for women. And why they think rape and sexual assault should be accepted and legal, and access to abortion and birth control decided by white men (never up to the women).

I'm not exaggerating. I've read this coming from their own members. It's what they're after.

[ProudMNDemocrat]

76. That is something right out of Margaret Atwood novels.....

Best not give Republican lawmakers any ideas to BAN all Contraception and put women of childbearing age in Internment camps.

[CousinIT]

79. You *know* they would if they could! n/t

[Rural_Progressive]

34. Human fertility indicators are declining around the world

My graduate school work involved working with water borne toxicants. We used reproduction and early life stage embryos for our work since that tissue is more sensitive to environmental contamination than tissue from older organisms. Reproduction problems are the proverbial canary in the mine shaft.

The garbage that is being grown and raised for our consumption combined with the processing Big Food does to our food is probably causing some of the problem. Combine that with all of the untested chemicals being released into the environment and it really isn't possible for us to avoid all sorts of problems, lowered fertility is just the start.

[dalton99a]

35. Lower the prices of formula, diapers, childcare, education, car insurance, Disneyland tickets

[Bayard]

36. They say that like its a bad thing

Sounds like we're on the right track.

[Devil Child]

38. Damn good news, now if only global birth rates would follow this trend

[Paladin]

39. The radical right has been screaming about this for years.

They make no secret of the fact that it's white babies they're concerned about.

[trev]

58. Yes.

Read Pat Buchanan's The Death of the West, published in 2002.

[Paladin]

60. How about I just take your word for it?

Reading anything by Buchanan would make me feel unclean for weeks to come.

[trev]

61. LOL

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

41. This is true of all industrialized countries.

The old Soviet Union, while they did their best to hide it, probably had a precipitously declining birthrate by the 1960s. With them it was the overall poverty of the country.

In other industrialized countries, it has to do with (in no particular order) increasing job opportunities for women, increased education for women, the overall cost of raising children, and the fact that we can now depend on almost all of our children to live to adulthood.

I think the planet is already well beyond its carrying capacity. There should probably be no more than about a billion humans, but it would take a serious population crash for that to happen.

[Mickju]

42. Good!

[honest.abe]

45. Life is becoming more and more complicated and a baby makes it even more complicated.

Having said that, my wife and I just had a baby and is 19 months old now. He's a wonderful blessing and a joy but clearly our life is more complicated and demanding. Many simply wont want to deal with it.

[LiberalFighter]

46. I'm okay with lower population.

[ffr]

47. Me too.

Break the stereotype of economic recession, or nongrowth, as something that's bad. If the population isn't growing, thus demand shouldn't either and that's okay.

[Mosby]

49. Hispanic women are showing the largest drop

https://piie.com/research/piie-charts/us-birth-rate-drops-historic-low-sharpest-drop-among-hispanic-women

I think the cost of living and wage inequalities are the largest factors.

Here are the countries with the highest birthrates:

https://www.statista.com/statistics/264704/ranking-of-the-20-countries-with-the-highest-birth-rate/

[luvtheGWN]

62. Perhaps they are secretly rejecting their Catholic Church's teachings

and are using birth control. I have several Catholic friends, none of whom paid any attention to the idea that using birth control (dependable birth control, that is) was a sin. And this would have been some 30 years ago.....

[Yeehah]

51. Human overpopulation is destroying the natural environment

Lower numbers is good news.

[Throck]

53. From an environmental standpoint this is a good thing.

It directly relates to carbon emissions.

[no_hypocrisy]

54. Don't they mean enough WHITE babies aren't being replaced?

Hence, the hysteria about criminalizing abortion?

[madville]

73. Since Black and Hispanic women have higher abortion rates than white women

I would think criminalizing abortion would theoretically increase black and hispanic birth rates relative to white rates so the argument is actually the opposite but some people probably do think that way.

[Stuart G]

55. Question..How do you make "babies"?...Ooops ...that is not a topic for discussion in the "latest

news."...... Maybe in the "offbeat" forum, or "Home and Family Forum...sorry ......

..............................

we all need a little humor....yes, I said a little.....ain't much, but maybe one laugh..??

[paulkienitz]

56. Capitalism is hostile to families and children.

Every incentive is against investing in the next generation.

[Doreen]

59. I think part of the reason some want

to force women to have babies is a want for future cheap laborers. The so called upper class will never have a problem with getting a clean safe abortion. The poor who are already cheaply paid laborers will not have that option.

[TexasBushwhacker]

83. I agree, but it's cheap labor that's most likely to replaced by automation

I went to Target last night and there were 6 self check out stands but only one traditional cashier, with a line of people waiting.

Granted, I'm old, but when I'm buying several items, I find self checkout to be a pain.

[Doreen]

91. I hate self check.

I for some strangely odd reason find them inhuman. I like people. I find it funny that they have to have cashiers standing there to help with those check out machines. It seems like they are always busy helping the people who want that quick and easy check out without having to deal with a person. Hmmm.

[crazycatlady]

65. It's the economy stupid

Just what young people with mortgage sized student debt need is another mouth to feed.

[shenmue]

68. Fewer teen pregnancies is a good thing

[democratisphere]

69. Finally!

[Mosby]

74. overpopulation isn't a problem

The problem is the inability to distribute resources.

[democratisphere]

77. Not so. The sustainable carrying capacity of this planet is about 2 billion people.

We currently have about 3.5 times that number of people which is not sustainable into the future.

[Mosby]

86. You're off by 7-8 billion

https://www.livescience.com/16493-people-planet-earth-support.html

[democratisphere]

89. Maintaining an American middle class life style, the carrying

capacity of our planet is about 2 billion people.

https://www.science.org.au/curious/earth-environment/how-many-people-can-earth-actually-support

[Yeehah]

93. Too bad there won't be any giraffes, tigers, elephants, bears, etc. sharing the world with us

To deny the destruction that human overpopulation has caused on this planet is rank stupidity. I don't expect those distribution problems to be solved anytime soon, so I think over-population is the actual problem.

[ADX]

80. There is no way I'd father a child in these days and times...

...The shit that a kid born today is going to face 18 years from now is beyond mind-boggling. Robots, artificial intelligence, hyper-surveillance, privacy intrusion, and fascistic totalitarianism, not to mention dwindling resources, declining economy, on and on ad nauseum...

At this point, I wouldn't want to be responsible for subjecting another human being to that type of future.

[TexasBushwhacker]

84. WE DON'T NEED TO REPLACE OURSELVES!!! n/t

[Mosby]

87. why?

[TexasBushwhacker]

88. Because the whole having children to replace ourselves

is based on the idea that you have to have heirs, you have to have someone to care for you when you're old, etc. You don't! You can pass your property onto whoever you like and having children for the purpose of burdening them with your care when you're old is pretty damn selfish. If the US was truly suffering from a decrease in population, we could simply allow more people to immigrate.

[X_Digger]

90. Good. n/t

[NickB79]

92. We've pushed the planet into a mass extinction event not seen in milllions of years

A baby born today will live long enough to watch global civilization start to crumble and billions of humans either die or become climate refugees.

Would you want to bring a child into a world like this, knowing this fact?

[akraven]

94. I only made one.

LOL! And that was by accident, but she's still my baby girl at 36.

After her birth, I had my tubes tied. I still believe in ZPG.