It is a basic and irrefutable truth: There is no tomorrow without babies today. No laughter, no giving, no receiving, no learning, no caring, no hope, no progress — no society.
Sadly, birth rates are declining dramatically all around the world and fertility in the United States has fallen to an all-time low. Increasingly, younger women are opting to not have children.
The Pew Research Center just released a major survey and analysis examining the reasons men and women give for remaining childless. But an interesting angle in Pew’s report is they examined views and perspectives of those over and under 50 years of age. The differences found are intriguing and notable.
Here’s what was striking: The share of U.S. childless adults under age 50 who say it is unlikely they will ever have kids rose a solid 10 percentage points from 2018 to 2023 (37 to 47% respectively). Their likelihood of having children declined by 11 percentage points, from 61% in 2018 to just 50% in 2023. That is a very dire societal trend line, moving in precisely the wrong direction for a healthy future.
One of the starkest findings relative to age category was that 57% of adults under 50 who say it is unlikely they will ever have kids stated it was simply because they “just don’t want to” while only 31% of those over 50 gave this reason for never having children.
While “just don’t want to” was the number one response for childless adults under 50, “it just never happened” was the top response for those over 50. This is a very clear generational shift from indifference or circumstantial reasons from older childless individuals to very clear anti-natal sentiments from the younger generation.
And remarkably, women under 50 were more likely than their male peers to report just not wanting to have children as their primary reason for being childless.
This means, according to this data anyway, that young men desire children more than young women. And Pew reports, “Large shares of both [age] groups say having a fulfilling life doesn’t have much to do with whether someone does or doesn’t have children.”
What is more, natural reasons such as infertility and medical concerns rated remarkably low as causes for not having children in both age groups, as seen below. This means the overwhelming majority of childless couples today are because individuals are placing other life-values above children.
Younger childless adults were more than twice as likely as those over 50 to say they “don’t really like children” at 20% versus only 8%.
Forgoing having children because of concerns over the state of the world and the environment were also dramatically higher for those under 50, as well as increased concerns about feeling they could not afford to raise a child today.
The under 50 group was also more than twice as likely to say they were childless because “they want to focus on other things” compared to their childless elders.
Few Are Even Talking about Having Children
Another striking finding was that strong majorities of young childless individuals said they “rarely/never” had conversations with their spouse, friends or parents about ever having children. The stark numbers are shown here:
Parents, friends and spouses should be talking much more about the essential virtue of creating tomorrow’s inventors, health-care providers, teachers, evangelists, writers, artists, pastors, business-founders, problem-solvers, peace-makers and community leaders.
A very interesting and well-documented article just published by the City Journal by Lexi Boccuzzi, a young policy analyst at the Manhattan Institute, provides some important insights into her generation on their views of fertility and natality.
She correctly explains there is not just a marked difference here in age cohorts, but also among those with differing ideological and political values. Boccuzzi explains,
Conservatives, after all, enjoy a “fertility advantage,” with Republican counties registering significantly higher birth rates than their Democratic counterparts. Similarly, research reveals that being conservative correlates with higher rates of happiness — and happy people have more children.
She also properly notes,
Positive belief about the state of the world will motivate such people to have even more children. During the Trump administration, when they reported greater confidence that the next generation would be better off, Republicans saw a baby bump.
Boccuzzi concludes, “In an age filled with grievance politics and negativity, young people are looking for hope.” She adds, “Their ambivalent or outright negative attitudes toward childrearing are a powerful sign that they haven’t found it yet.”
It is our job as Christians, and all wise citizens of goodwill, to help the younger generation realize the first law of human nature: There is no hopeful future without having children today.
Related articles and resources:
Pro-Life and Pro-Family Policies are Essential for Conservatives
Death of the West? U.S. Fertility Rate Falls to Record Low.
Why Women Are Not Having the Babies They Say They Want
Discarding Genesis 1, U.S. Population Set to Decline This Century Amid World Population Collapse
China Launches Largest Fertility Initiative in Human History
No, The World Does Not Have Too Many People. It Has Too Few.
Births in Japan Fall to Record Low Amid Catastrophic Population Decline, Foretelling World’s Future
Japanese Prime Minister Warns of Imminent Societal Collapse Due to Low Birth Rate
‘60 Minutes’ Platforms New Environmental Alarmism from Man Who’s Been Famously Wrong for 50+ Years
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