Incredible story about our changing culture backed by powerful data. People want freedom now and many see kids as a noose on that freedom. Not sure where this goes other than to say I’m thankful many still have kids because when everyone stops, our world ceases to continue.
When my editors at The Wall Street Journal encouraged me to write about why the U.S. birth rate had reached a record low, I expected to turn in a pretty straightforward story about shrinking family size. What I found when I started looking into the data, however, surprised me. It turns out that a surge in childlessness—rather than just people deciding to have fewer kids—is emerging as the biggest driver of the overall population decline. We found that women ages 35-to-44 with no kids accounted for over two-thirds of the 6.5% drop in this group’s average lifetime births between 2012 to 2022. Looking around at my own community, the picture starts to make sense. My friends and I are all worried about the impacts of climate change, the increasing expectations to provide kids with limitless opportunities and the thought of giving up our hard-won freedom. The mindset shift is a huge departure from decades past. Throughout history, “to be a human being, for most people, meant to have children,” said Anastasia Artemyev Berg, co-author of the new book “What Are Children For?” “You didn’t think about how much it would cost, it was taken for granted." But unlike their parents and grandparents, younger Americans view kids as one of many elements that can create a meaningful life. Weighed against other personal and professional ambitions, the investments of child-rearing don’t always land in children’s favor. MJ Petroni sums up a lot of millennials' new views: “It was almost shocking to me when I realized having a fulfilling life didn’t necessarily include my own kids." Read the story (without a paywall) if you get a second in between catching up on election drama: https://lnkd.in/g7r-a4Cv Huge thanks to all the researchers and economists who spent so much time with me on this topic, including the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill's Carolina Population Center Karen Guzzo, Aspen Economic Strategy Group's Luke Pardue, University of Maryland's Melissa Kearney, Brown University's Emily Oster, The University of Texas at Austin's Dean Spears & Pew Research Center. And the biggest thanks of all to the couples who were willing to share these incredibly personal decisions with our readers: Beth Davis & Jacob Edenfield, MJ Petroni & Oleg Karpynets, Allie Mills & Connor J. Laubenthal, Trevor Galko & Keri Ann Meslar and Mariah Sanchez & Giovanni Perez
Empowering live music events seeking sponsorship investment
1moThat is really fascinating. As a GenX DINK household I’m curious to know if and when there was a tipping point. Thanks for sharing.