According to a dire survey, nearly half of Americans under 50 don’t want to have children.
Last year, the U.S. saw the biggest decline in births since 1973, as per Daily Mail. Unfortunately, statistics may become even gloomier, as almost 50% of Americans aged 18 to 49 claim they don’t want to have children.
The disturbing data was released in a survey conducted by the Pew Research Center. It states that 44% of childless adults out of 4,000 respondents “say it is not too or not at all likely that they will have children.”
More than half of non-parents said they “just don’t want to have children.” Meanwhile, others listed different reasons, including medical or financial issues, the current state of the world, and even climate crisis.
Most parents under 50 also said no to the possibility of having more kids – 74% of them reported they have no plans of expanding their families. Similar to non-parents, they reported they “just don’t want to have kids.”
The survey found that men and women were equally as likely to say they don’t want children.
Understandably, the data was a bit different for respondents over 40. According to the survey, 85% of the childless ones would like to continue having no kids. When it comes to those who are already parents, 91% of them said they would skip on having another child.
As of 2020, the average U.S. household size is 2.53 people, as reported by Census. Compared to 1960, when it was 3.33 people per family, it has decreased by almost one, marking an alarming decline in births.
What’s more, as a result of the pandemic’s impact on public health and the economy, U.S. fertility rates are also deteriorating. Citing a report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Bloomberg states:
“The number of babies born in the country fell 4% to about 3.6 million in 2020, the largest decline since 1973.”
Regrettably, the trend is continuing in 2021.
The Americans’ income decline amid the pandemic might be behind their lack of enthusiasm to have children.
This September, the Wall Street Journal revealed that in 2020, U.S. citizens saw their first significant decline in household income in nearly a decade. In comparison to 2019, the median household income dropped by 2.9%. In the meantime, 14.6% of Americans became unemployed due to COVID-19.
Nevertheless, some people choose to be childfree not because of financial issues, but simply because they feel happier that way.
Where do you stand on this issue? Leave a comment to let us know!
