Many reports regarding the demography of the world show some very concerning results. The world’s population is getting old. In other words, the fertility rates in many countries are in decline, which means less newborns. Countries like Bulgaria, Romania or Moldova are already facing the consequences of the population decline.
The CDC’s report on the US demography is also concerning. The figures show that the fertility rate in the country is in decline and the experts expect some difficult periods for the nation in terms of newborns and young generations.
Except for only two US states, Utah and South Dakota, all of the other US states have decreased fertility rate, according to the 2017 report. This is a direct consequence of a very simple thing – many people decide not to have kids in these states.
The statistical tools for determining the fertility rate follows the following formula. The fertility rate is determined with a projected number of births per 1,000 women. These estimates take into consideration the projected average number of babies of women. In order to understand the experts’ alarm, in 1950s the average number of children for women was 4.7, while in 2017 it’s only 2.4.
There are many factors for such decrease. The fertility rate decrease is not a new phenomenon in America. It has been recorded in the previous decades as well.
The economy is usually the most influential factor for this fertility rate decrease. People do not decide to have kids if they think their jobs are not stable and their income is minimal. Having in mind the costs for raising a kid, many people decide that having only one kid is enough.
Besides the economical factor, there are several other that greatly impact the fertility rate. Many people put greater importance to their careers instead of to the family. This results with getting married later in their lives and that means less chance of getting more kids.
Additional factors are the ‘freedom of movement’ and the decrease of the teen pregnancies. The first one includes categories of women who do not want to have obligations and extra duties by giving birth to a child. The second one is a direct result of the good sex education in the country, which directly and efficiently decreased the number of pregnant teenagers.
However, the USA are not the only that are affected by this decrease. Countries of similar economical and demographical outline like the USA have the same problems. The fertility rate decrease can be seen in the reports for countries from Asia, Europe and North America.
If this decrease continues going down, all of these countries will have some significant problems in the future. Improving these rates takes a lot of efforts and measurements, in addition to the time that is needed to go back to the fertility rates that were noted in the reports of 1950s.