The pace of babies born each year in the U.S. has slowed to a new record low, according to an analysis of 2023 birth certificate data published Thursday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Last year’s slowdown marks an official end to the uptick in new babies that began during the COVID-19 pandemic. At least 3,591,328 babies were born in the U.S. in 2023, down 2% from the 3,667,758 born in 2022.
The next time you pay monthly tribute to your landed lord, really savor the moment. I bet your kids are just tickled pink to pay to exist, just like you right?
While dramatic, it echos a sentiment a lot of us have. I am on a good career path. I will never own a home. I likely won't retire. Unless something drastic changes, I can't see any of that slowing down, let alone getting better. That's not even to speak of climate change, increasing world tension and aggressive postering, or any of the other shit plaguing the world right now.
I hope with all my heart we get to a place where I feel comfortable bringing a child into this world, with the promise of a better future for them. That's not the world we currently live in.
As the article points out, US has been below replacement birthrate(2.1 children per woman) since 1971. Immigration is the only reason the US has continued to have a growing population since that time.
1.6 is bad but many industrial countries have the same issue–only they don’t have strong immigration draw(or don’t allow it) to fall back on. East Asia (Japan, South Korea and now China), as well as southern European countries (Portugal, Spain, Italy) have had crushingly low birth rates for years.
Social programs, entitlements and politics are incredibly affected.
At the end of the day, people are being worked so much and are so stressed they can’t enjoy or don’t want to entertain bringing a new life into what for many countries is a vicious cycle of exploitation.
For my wife and I, our decision to not have kids came early in our marriage. We've never been super well off, but we get by. There have been times where we have had trouble paying rent. Neither one of us can imagine trying to just afford a child, much less raise one.
I mean it's fine because the US can just rely on immigration, but when the global population as a whole flattens out yeah it'll be a bad thing. You can just ask Japan why aging populations are bad.
In our lifetimes at least, yes. An aging population means more people who need help and less people to supply it. We all need more help as we get older, and we’re already facing staff shortages for geriatric care. And of course if you’re in the US, there’s genuine fear of SS not being available once we’re eligible to use it.
We could probably change course and mitigate these issues by increasing pay for Healthcare workers to incentivise taking care of the elderly, reducing or eliminating student debt so more people can seek higher education in Healthcare, improved access to Healthcare to prevent problems while we’re young so they don’t catch up with us when we’re old, and easier paths to legal immigration so we can bolster our population while continuing to collect taxes for more robust social programs. But that probably won’t happen because the people in charge are too old and/or wealthy to ever be affected by this kind of thing.
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