US fertility rate is below level needed to replace population, study says

the total fertility rate for the United States in 2017 was 1,765.5 per 1,000 women, which was 16% below what is considered the level needed for a population to replace itself: 2,100 births per 1,000 women, according to the report.

between 2007 and 2017, total fertility rates in the United States fell 12% in rural counties, 16% in suburban counties and 18% in large metro counties, according to a separate CDC data brief released in October.

the concern is -- and there is a concern -- is having a fertility rate that doesn't allow us in effect to perpetuate our society

Source

Fertility and birthrates are indicators of a country’s economic health. When too high, young people may not be able find work and become susceptible to unrest. When too low, economies rapidly contract, and a small working-age population has to support a large retired population. The United States is buffered because of its high levels of immigration, but if the drop in fertility continues, the country may face an extreme population imbalance and economic contraction in the future.

As 2017 drew to a close, House Speaker Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.) urged Americans to have more children. To keep the country great, he said, we’re “going to need more people.”

S ource

Some of the reasons are simple: women getting married later and focusing on education or work, less-than-generous parental leave and pay policies, and possibly the exposure to pollutants that are decreasing sperm production among American males.

This comprehensive meta-regression analysis reports a significant decline in sperm counts (as measured by SC and TSC) between 1973 and 2011, driven by a 50–60% decline among men unselected by fertility from North America, Europe, Australia and New Zealand.

Source

So how is the US population still growing?

Hispanic and Latino Americans accounted for 48% of the national population growth of 2.9 million between July 1, 2005, and July 1, 2006.[15] Immigrants and their U.S.-born descendants are expected to provide most of the U.S. population gains in the decades ahead.[16]

White people constitute the majority of the U.S. population, with a total of about 245,532,000 or 77.7% of the population as of 2013. Non-Hispanic whites make up 62.6% of the country's population. The non-Hispanic white population of the US is expected to fall below 50% by 2045. According to Pew Research Center study released in 2018, by 2040, Islam will surpass Judaism to become the second largest religion in the US due to higher immigration and birth rates.

The report foresees the Hispanic or Latino population rising from 16% today to 30% by 2050, the Black percentage barely rising from 12.9% to 13.1%, and Asian Americans upping their 4.6% share to 7.8%. The United States had a population of 310 million people in October 2010, and is projected to reach 400 million by 2039 and 439 million in 2050.[17][76][77][78] It is further projected that 82% of the increase in population from 2005 to 2050 will be due to immigrants and their children.[79]

Source

This looks to be the future of the US. Any thoughts ATS?

Don't panic, automation will take care of it.

If we don't get over run

Robots are people too...

Androids for all!!

a reply to: FilthyUSMonkey

Guess the US need more immigration then. Unless people want to retire later to support the ageing population. Maybe its a good idea to open the borders and let some in..

originally posted by: FilthyUSMonkey

the total fertility rate for the United States in 2017 was 1,765.5 per 1,000 women, which was 16% below what is considered the level needed for a population to replace itself: 2,100 births per 1,000 women, according to the report.

between 2007 and 2017, total fertility rates in the United States fell 12% in rural counties, 16% in suburban counties and 18% in large metro counties, according to a separate CDC data brief released in October.

the concern is -- and there is a concern -- is having a fertility rate that doesn't allow us in effect to perpetuate our society

Source

Fertility and birthrates are indicators of a country’s economic health. When too high, young people may not be able find work and become susceptible to unrest. When too low, economies rapidly contract, and a small working-age population has to support a large retired population. The United States is buffered because of its high levels of immigration, but if the drop in fertility continues, the country may face an extreme population imbalance and economic contraction in the future.

As 2017 drew to a close, House Speaker Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.) urged Americans to have more children. To keep the country great, he said, we’re “going to need more people.”

S ource

Some of the reasons are simple: women getting married later and focusing on education or work, less-than-generous parental leave and pay policies, and possibly the exposure to pollutants that are decreasing sperm production among American males.

This comprehensive meta-regression analysis reports a significant decline in sperm counts (as measured by SC and TSC) between 1973 and 2011, driven by a 50–60% decline among men unselected by fertility from North America, Europe, Australia and New Zealand.

Source

So how is the US population still growing?

Hispanic and Latino Americans accounted for 48% of the national population growth of 2.9 million between July 1, 2005, and July 1, 2006.[15] Immigrants and their U.S.-born descendants are expected to provide most of the U.S. population gains in the decades ahead.[16]

White people constitute the majority of the U.S. population, with a total of about 245,532,000 or 77.7% of the population as of 2013. Non-Hispanic whites make up 62.6% of the country's population. The non-Hispanic white population of the US is expected to fall below 50% by 2045. According to Pew Research Center study released in 2018, by 2040, Islam will surpass Judaism to become the second largest religion in the US due to higher immigration and birth rates.

The report foresees the Hispanic or Latino population rising from 16% today to 30% by 2050, the Black percentage barely rising from 12.9% to 13.1%, and Asian Americans upping their 4.6% share to 7.8%. The United States had a population of 310 million people in October 2010, and is projected to reach 400 million by 2039 and 439 million in 2050.[17][76][77][78] It is further projected that 82% of the increase in population from 2005 to 2050 will be due to immigrants and their children.[79]

Source

This looks to be the future of the US. Any thoughts ATS?

Consequences of feminism and illegal immigration...

Feminism has encouraged women to work and as a result they are having children later in life. The problem is they have fewer children and in many cases, need fertility treatments. If you go into any urban area with a lot of highly paid and educated professional women, I will guarantee more than 50% of them need to see a fertility doc.

My wife and I went through this and even almost all our friends. The women are highly accomplished and not having kids until their mid to late 30s. Need IVFs, IUIs, etc.

On the flip side, immigrants are having kids hence the growth rates cited in the article. The lower your education, generally, the more children you have...

The middle and upper middle classes don't have as many because the cost of raising a kid to be competitive is so expensive.

a reply to: Edumakated

So Idiocracy is a reality.

I mean, it couldn't possibly have anything to do with all the crap chemicals that are in our food, medications and vaccines that are known to reduce fertility, etc.....

Science will eventually be our downfall, it seems.

I can explain the problem with two words..

"Man bun"

originally posted by: Lumenari
a reply to: Edumakated

So Idiocracy is a reality.

Unfortunately, Idiocracy is a documentary...

a reply to: Edumakated

Consequences of feminism and illegal immigration...

, and abortion, AND swaping 'genders'.

The future is bleak.

If everyone stopped using birth control we would have a population explosion. Regardless, we don’t need more population in the world we need less. We will adapt and adjust. It is what we humans do.

a reply to: FilthyUSMonkey

We can speculate about the causes. Most of my ideas would be politically incorrect.

I think the answer is to focus on solutions. Solutions beside import the third world. More tax breaks and incentives. Maybe change the divorce laws to encourage marriage. Make society in general more family friendly.

Don't like the way things were in the 50's? Design a better society conducive to having families and stop running this country like a whorehouse.

From the young people that work for me... Kids are long term and very expensive, something they do not want. Doesn't fix their lifestyles...Many do not even want to marry and just want a long term partner at most...Kids are expensive, maybe I should say a a few more times. ...lol

Why Are Young People Having So Little Sex? Despite the easing of taboos and the rise of hookup apps, Americans are in the midst of a sex recession.American teenagers and young adults are having less sex.

From 1991 to 2017, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Youth Risk Behavior Survey finds, the percentage of high-school students who’d had intercourse dropped from 54 to 40 percent.

Good news is U.S. teen pregnancy rate has plummeted to a third of its modern high.

Gen Xers and Baby Boomers may also be having less sex today than previous generations did at the same age. From the late 1990s to 2014, Twenge found, drawing on data from the General Social Survey, the average adult went from having sex 62 times a year to 54 times. A given person might not notice this decrease, but nationally, it adds up to a lot of missing sex. Twenge recently took a look at the latest General Social Survey data, from 2016, and told me that in the two years following her study, sexual frequency fell even further.

Why?

I was told it might be a consequence of the hookup culture, of crushing economic pressures, of surging anxiety rates, of psychological frailty, of widespread antidepressant use, of streaming television, of environmental estrogens leaked by plastics, of dropping testosterone levels, of digital porn, of the vibrator’s golden age, of dating apps, of option paralysis, of helicopter parents, of careerism, of smartphones, of the news cycle, of information overload generally, of sleep deprivation, of obesity. Name a modern blight, and someone, somewhere, is ready to blame it for messing with the modern libido.

Source
Uh huh....

Having kids is crazy expensive, and wages haven't kept up enough to allow young adults to be able to afford a studio apartment, let alone a kid or 2 and enough room to house them.

Wage increase (or cost of living decrease) = more kids.

Simple explanation.

a reply to: Xtrozero

Its better to have kids then none at all.

Doesn't fix their lifestyles

Nor does having a lifestyle of loneliness surrounded by cats or dogs.. Then later on as you grow older regretting the decision by not having children.

originally posted by: AtlasHawk
a reply to: Xtrozero

Its better to have kids then none at all.

Doesn't fix their lifestyles

Nor does having a lifestyle of loneliness surrounded by cats or dogs.. Then later on as you grow older regretting the decision by not having children.

I have 2 sons, 22 and 16. I prefer dogs and cats. Never bug me for a new cell phone, clothes, a car. Never came home in a police car. Always happy to see me.

originally posted by: AtlasHawk

Nor does having a lifestyle of loneliness surrounded by cats or dogs.. Then later on as you grow older regretting the decision by not having children.

You seem to be an older person like me...

They want to travel, climb mountains, spend weeks camping, party till 50, live all over on a moment noticed, so on and so on... Kids, cats and dogs do not fit. They would not have the money or time if they had kids..

originally posted by: narrator
Having kids is crazy expensive, and wages haven't kept up enough to allow young adults to be able to afford a studio apartment, let alone a kid or 2 and enough room to house them.

Wage increase (or cost of living decrease) = more kids.

Simple explanation.

Kids are expensive. So is college and young people do that. I can't say the system of financing college is perfect either but at least society does try to facilitate it.

Our brave new world order is a failure. It is literally dying on the vine due to lack of replenishment. The goal here is to encourage women to have children while they are still young. We must isolate the reasons that make it a disability and work to remove them.

If our goal was to bust up the family and remove the so called system of slavery, I would say we've mostly accomplished that. We need to start putting it back together in a way that works for both sexes.

To my mind, the tough nut to crack here is childcare. Affordable childcare. Modern families don't work because someone needs to watch the children so both parents can have an income. We need to pay women to watch each other's kids. Get these girls out of the fast food restaurants into the daycare industry. Before the last election, both parties had all kinds of plans for this. What happened? Haven't heard a single word about it in the two years since. This needs to be a major goal for the women's movement. Not Russia, Russia, Russia.

originally posted by: AtlasHawk
a reply to: Xtrozero

Its better to have kids then none at all.

Doesn't fix their lifestyles

Nor does having a lifestyle of loneliness surrounded by cats or dogs.. Then later on as you grow older regretting the decision by not having children.

1. I fully disagree. It is most definitely not always better to have kids than to not have them. A married couple barely above the poverty line, living paycheck to paycheck, and can hardly afford rent? They should not have a kid. To say otherwise is irresponsible.
2. What if they aren't lonely? Not everyone feels lonely without kids. It is much better to regret NOT having kids than it is to regret having them.

I have 3 things to add. Not to be taken to seriously. Just food for thought.

1. Would a reduction in population be a bad thing. It may be that a natural process resides in humans that if overcrowding becomes a problem that a natural process kicks in to help us reduce the population.

2. In the episode of Star Gate SG-1 the Aschen, our hero’s found a civilization that through a stealth process sterilized 80% of the Human race. Just something to think about. Many people think we have been visited.

3. If any of you ladies would like to try to, well, try to conceive. Perhaps I can help? Just being neighborly you see, as I am very healthy for my age and I am well versed in multiple technical skills.