New Research Shows That Young Americans Want Kids Later in Life

It seems that birth rates are falling in the US, so experts have tried to figure out why. According to a new study, the fertility rate has dropped to its lowest point since the 1970s, at 1.71 per woman. New research shows that it’s not that young people don’t want kids, they just don’t want them now. They actually want to have as many kids as their parents had.

Young Americans Want Kids Later

Apparently, young Americans are having more difficulty getting their lives together to have kids. Many people believe that young people are simply not interested in having children because they have better things to do, but there are actually many at that age who are interested in the prospect. It’s just that other things make it difficult to act on that.

The U.S. fertility rate was highest during the baby boom, at 3.58 in 1958, and then reached a low of 1.77 in 1972. There was a rebound after that, but birth rates went down in 2008 and have continued to drop ever since. For the new study, scientists used data from the U.S. National Survey of Family Growth. They checked 10 groups of men and 13 groups of women born between the 1960s and 2000s. They were asked if they planned to have kids and how many would they expect to have.

Having Kids Is More Expensive

On average, women 20 to 24 years old wanted 2.1 children, and women born in 1965 to 1969 wanted 2.2 at the same age. The percentage of people who didn’t plan to have kids rose from 5%-8% in the ’60s and ’70s to 8%-16% in the 1990s and 2000s. According to the researchers, that change alone was insufficient to explain the falling birthrate. One of the factors that do play a role is the reduction of unintended births. The study also determined that as people age, they reduce the number of kids they say they want.

Another problem that may play a role in delaying the finding of a romantic partner is finances. It is expensive to have children in the US, and people wait until they’re in a good place financially to afford to manage having children. Today, it is also more difficult to buy a house or find a stable place to rent, and housing takes longer to line up.

One conclusion of the research is that people prefer later childbearing and that delay makes it harder for couples to have more than two or three kids. The study also points out other barriers to having kids, namely economics, health insurance, and child care.