The Misplaced Fears About the United States’ Declining Fertility Rate
Many women may not be abstaining from having children, but simply delaying it.
America’s fertility rate is in steady decline: In 2018, it dipped to an all-time low, down 2 percent from the year before, according to a Centers for Disease report published Wednesday. American women are now predicted to have an average of 1.73 children over their lifetime. The absolute number of births has also fallen to a historic low: Roughly 3.8 million babies were born in the United States last year, the smallest tally since 1986, when the country was just to emerge from a recession.
