Adults of childbearing age are having fewer children than previous generations, reaching a peak in 2023 when U.S. fertility rate hits historic low. And while every individual has their own reasons for not conceiving, the rising cost of living is a major concern for younger generations.
In fact, people under 50 without children are three times more likely than older people without children (36% vs. 12%) to say they can’t afford to have children, one study found. New Pew Research Center ReportSince 2018, the share of young American adults who say they will probably never have children has increased from 37% to 47% by 2023.
That said, while money is a factor, it’s not the top reason people under 50 give for not having children. For this cohort, the top reason is that they simply don’t want to have them. Pew surveyed 2,542 adults ages 50 and older who don’t have children and 770 adults ages 18 to 49 who don’t have children or aren’t planning to have children.
Sure, young people might change their minds. But the Pew study highlights a major problem for today’s younger generations. While they can command higher salaries than their parents, they pay significantly more for things like housing, child care and health care. That’s causing more people to reconsider their decision to have children. In fact, a majority of people over 50 and under 50 said that not having children made it easier to finance their lifestyle and save for the future, according to the Pew report.
Even the HENRYs, who earn a lot of money, but are not yet rich,feel the pressurewhile they should theoretically be among the the most financially comfortable in the countryStudent loans are a major obstacle, they have said previously Fortune.
“When I think about starting a family, I hesitate to do it while I’m still paying off my student loans,” said a 29-year-old who earns $125,000. “Starting saving for my kids’ student loans while paying off my own is something I don’t want to do.”
Millennials’ Financial Insecurity
It’s not hard to draw a connection between millennials’ economic woes and why they’re not having kids. Older millennials came of age during the Great Recession; millennials overall were later in marriage and homeownership. Many feel their finances are insecure.
Having a partner and a home aren’t necessarily prerequisites for having a child, but they are the social norm. So it follows that if millennials (and now younger generations) have a harder time affording these things, they might also be hesitant to have children.
“We have a pretty strict set of prerequisites: You absolutely have to finish college, have a decent job, earn a decent income, be in a good relationship and live alone,” said Karen Benjamin Guzzo, director of the Carolina Population Center at the University of North Carolina. Washington Post about the phenomenon. “It takes time, especially in this day and age. Some people may feel like they’ll never be in a good situation.”
The rise in the number of childless adults — or more specifically, childless women — has become a flashpoint in the presidential election in recent days, with the resurfaced of a clip of Republican vice presidential nominee J.D. Vance questioning Democratic front-runner Kamala Harris for not having biological children (Harris has two stepchildren with husband Douglas Emhoff).
Democrats, including Harris, are “a bunch of childless women who are unhappy in their own lives and the choices they’ve made and therefore want to make the rest of the country unhappy too,” Vance said. Fox News in 2021“How is it possible that we have entrusted our country to people who have no real vested interest in it?”
In addition to wanting to focus on other things, like their careers, younger people are also much more likely than their elders to cite environmental concerns as a reason for not having children. In fact, 26% of those under 50 cited climate change as a reason in Pew’s report, compared to just 6% of those over 50. For the older group, the top reason Pew gave for not having children was “it just didn’t happen.”
