New data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows that America’s facing a crisis of unparalleled proportions— no one’s having babies anymore. Some experts blame the decline in birth rate on the everlasting economic Dutch oven in which we now live. With an imminent shortage of able bodied youngsters waiting to replace us at our shitty jobs, who’s going to pay for our future entitlement costs and feed us thickened coffee when we get old?! Who are we going to call ungrateful slackers in 20 years?
The Washington Post reports that statisticians first noticed a decline in the birth rate at about the same time that the financial crisis intensified in 2008. The birth rate continued to drop in 2009, and even though it seems like everyone you went to high school with gave birth in the last year and a half, the rate continued to drop in 2010. We’re now having fewer babies per capita than we ever had, at least since we started keeping track of these stats in the 1940’s.
Although all ages and races experienced a decline in birth rate, the drop was most dramatic among young women. Women in their early 20’s experienced a 6% drop in birth rate, and unmarried women had 4% fewer babies. Women of Hispanic origin have gone from a 3 children per woman down to a 2.4 children per women rate in just a few years. Overall, the average American woman can expect to have 1.9 children, down from 2.1 just a few years ago (Maybe second borns are statistical underachievers).
While there’s no way to conclude from these statistics that everyone who didn’t have a baby put off reproducing because of money concerns, the correlation between the economic downturn and the sharp decline in birth rate is striking. For reasons that may or may not be related to the economy, American women are having less sex, more abortions, or doubling down on the birth control.