Women In 20's Not Having Children
This is alarming, seriously. Women in their 20's not replacing themselves, much less a partner. Implications are very bad for their 'golden years' unless there is a huge jump going into their 30's. As the article points out, these types of birthrates haven't worked out well for Europe.
Both of my kids that have kids currently plan to stay at 1, though open to change of minds, (which probably means 2). The third kid, is not in a rush to get married, after his first 3 month marriage. (He should have listened!)
He has been in a relationship now for nearly a year, but she's a lawyer and he's been moving up pretty quickly in his logistics firm. So, they are doing the 'build careers', run marathons, maintain separate apartments in the city, save money, and take 2 trips a year. While he's paid back his student loans, she has well over $100k from Notre Dame Law. As long as she stays at non-profit and makes less than $72k, ND pays her loans. In 8 years they will assume all of her debt from school. (One of the reasons that students should look at long-term costs of private v public universities if they qualify grade wise.) She's 24 and out of school 2 years. He will be 30 in August and has been at his job for 7 years.
They are pretty typical amongst their friends. The older kids are 33 and almost 32, they got married at 29 and 30. Both have the one baby as I said. Of their friends most got married after them, are planning on getting married, or are still single. Still no kids. My daughter has 4 friends that do have kids, but one of those friends got married at 18, had 3 kids by 21, divorced. Remarried and had 2 more. Thankfully the second marriage seems very strong, but she's the anomally in both marrying young and 5 kids! Two of her other friends have 2 kids, 1 has 1 and is done-tubes tied. None of my sons have friends with kids yet.
Anyways, here's the report:
http://www.theatlantic.com/health/ar...urce=SFTwitter
The Childless Millennial
A new report finds that today's twentysomethings have a lower birthrate than any previous generation.
In a new report, the Urban Institute think tank writes that in 2012, there were only 948 births per 1,000 women in their 20s, "by far the slowest pace of any generation of young women in U.S. history." In 2007, the rate was 1,118 births per 1,000. The decline in births was largest among Hispanic women, at 26 percent, followed by black women, at 14 percent, and an 11 percent drop for white women.
<big>Decline in Fertility Among Twentysomething Women, by Race</big>
<figure class="right" style="margin: 1em 0px 1em 1em; position: relative; padding: 10px 0px; float: right; clear: right; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: 'Lyon Text', Georgia, Times, serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 30.0000610351563px; max-width: 612px;"><figcaption class="credit" style="font-family: 'Proxima Nova', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 0.66667rem; text-align: right;">Urban Institute</figcaption></figure>
The researchers put forward a few theories for the decrease. One is the Great Recession, which might have hit pause on pregnancy plans because babies are, among other things, expensive. Past studies have estimated that the recession led to a 2.4 percent decrease in the fertility rate, or about 426,850 live births. The recession also slowed the trickle of immigrants to the U.S., and immigrants tend to have more children.
The authors also found stark differences when they parsed the data by race. For Hispanic and black women, the majority of the fertility decline was explained by falling birth rates among unmarried women. That's generally considered a good thing, because while most single mothers do an admirable job, they are also more likely to be poor, stressed-out, and feel regretful. If more women are waiting until marriage to have kids, they might have an easier time of parenting.
<big>Components of Decreasing Births from 2007 to 2012</big>
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National Center for Vital Statistics, U.S. Bureau of the Census, and Urban Institute</figcaption></figure>
For white women, though, the story was very different: "81 percent of the decrease in fertility is attributable to declining marriage rates." (Granted, white women were less likely to be single mothers to begin with.) All the single ladies of countless Internet essays are, indeed, staying unhitched—and they're not having kids as a result.
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Originally Posted by Trigg
