Julie Levinthal’s Post

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

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

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

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

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

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

Op Ed The Five Age-Related Questions/Issues that Biden and Trump Must Address As birth rates continue to decline and the baby boomers turn 70 at the rate of 10,000+ a day, we are living in truly unchartered territory and longevity has become humanity’s new frontier. This demographic transformation will create new lifestyle and marketplace opportunities as well as potentially challenging medical, fiscal, and intergenerational challenges. Based on 50 years of research, analysis and activism on aging, I have come to believe that there are five transpartisan issues that must be addressed if our newfound longevity is to be a triumph rather than a tragedy. Issue # 1: What is the New Age of “Old?” Our economy is hinged to 19th century notions of longevity and old age. When Germany's Otto Von Bismarck picked 65 to be the marker of old age in the 1880s, the average life expectancy in his country was only 45. Question for Biden and Trump: At what age do you think that people become “old” today and do you think of yourself as “old?”   Issue #2: The Diseases of Aging Could Be the Financial and Emotional Sinkhole of the 21st Century. As a result of modern medical advances and public health infrastructure, we’ve managed to prolong the lifespan, but we have done far too little to extend the healthspan—as pandemics of heart disease, cancer, stroke, Alzheimer’s and diabetes are running rampant. Question for Biden and Trump: Are you willing to make beating the diseases of aging such as Alzheimer’s before they beat us your “moonshot,” and commit whatever resources are necessary to help make our healthspans match our lifespans? Issue # 3: Averting a New Era of Mass Elder Poverty According to the Government Accounting Office, 52% of all households near retirement (headed by someone age 55+) have no retirement savings and about 51% of our population have no pensions beyond Social Security. Question for Biden and Trump: How would you avert mass poverty among the aging boomer generation (half of whom are already retired) and Gen Xers?   Issue # 4: Ending Ageism In our post-industrial youth-focused society, many people of all ages are “gerontophobic”— and many of our institutions are ageist —from education, to advertising, to employment hiring practices to housing. Question for Biden and Trump: What would you do to wipe out ageism in America? Issue # 5: The New Purpose of Maturity Notwithstanding the obvious aging of our population, political, religious, business and community leaders have yet to agree on a compelling vision for the purpose of the additional years so many of us will be living. Question for Biden and Trump: What is your biggest idea for what America’s nearly 70 million retirees could be doing to contribute more to our society?     An “age wave” is coming that could either make or break America. It’s critical that our next president have fresh ideas and practical solutions for the unprecedented age-related changes ahead.

Op Ed The Five Age-Related Questions/Issues that Biden and Trump Must Address As birth rates continue to decline and the baby boomers turn 70 at the rate of 10,000+ a day, we are living in truly unchartered territory and longevity has become humanity’s new frontier. This demographic transformation will create new lifestyle and marketplace opportunities as well as potentially challenging medical, fiscal, and intergenerational challenges. Based on 50 years of research, analysis and activism on aging, I have come to believe that there are five transpartisan issues that must be addressed if our newfound longevity is to be a triumph rather than a tragedy. Issue # 1: What is the New Age of “Old?” Our economy is hinged to 19th century notions of longevity and old age. When Germany's Otto Von Bismarck picked 65 to be the marker of old age in the 1880s, the average life expectancy in his country was only 45. Question for Biden and Trump: At what age do you think that people become “old” today and do you think of yourself as “old?”   Issue #2: The Diseases of Aging Could Be the Financial and Emotional Sinkhole of the 21st Century. As a result of modern medical advances and public health infrastructure, we’ve managed to prolong the lifespan, but we have done far too little to extend the healthspan—as pandemics of heart disease, cancer, stroke, Alzheimer’s and diabetes are running rampant. Question for Biden and Trump: Are you willing to make beating the diseases of aging such as Alzheimer’s before they beat us your “moonshot,” and commit whatever resources are necessary to help make our healthspans match our lifespans? Issue # 3: Averting a New Era of Mass Elder Poverty According to the Government Accounting Office, 52% of all households near retirement (headed by someone age 55+) have no retirement savings and about 51% of our population have no pensions beyond Social Security. Question for Biden and Trump: How would you avert mass poverty among the aging boomer generation (half of whom are already retired) and Gen Xers?   Issue # 4: Ending Ageism In our post-industrial youth-focused society, many people of all ages are “gerontophobic”— and many of our institutions are ageist —from education, to advertising, to employment hiring practices to housing. Question for Biden and Trump: What would you do to wipe out ageism in America? Issue # 5: The New Purpose of Maturity Notwithstanding the obvious aging of our population, political, religious, business and community leaders have yet to agree on a compelling vision for the purpose of the additional years so many of us will be living. Question for Biden and Trump: What is your biggest idea for what America’s nearly 70 million retirees could be doing to contribute more to our society?     An “age wave” is coming that could either make or break America. It’s critical that our next president have fresh ideas and practical solutions for the unprecedented age-related changes ahead.