Recent data reveals that the U.S. family has evolved, with more Americans choosing delayed parenthood and fewer kids.
According to an NBC News data analysis released Thursday by the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS), families in America are now smaller, and Americans are waiting longer to have children as compared to the past.
From 2015 to 2020, the report showed that the overall U.S. fertility rate declined to less than six births per 100 women between the ages of 15 to 33. A one percent increase happened from 2020 to 2021, yet overall, the fertility rate trend is spiraling downward.
Based on the number of births per 1,000 women, the U.S. birth rate tailed off from 2018 to 2019 among 20 to early 30-year-old women yet increased among women between 35 to 44.
On the other hand, the teen birth rate in the U.S. hit a record low in 2019, with less than 1.7 births per 100 teenage girls between 15 to 19. The numbers have sharply fallen since 2007 and have been in a pattern of decline for ten long years. However, America still has higher teen birth rates than other high-income countries.
The analysis further revealed that from 2015 to 2019, the average age of women giving birth to their first child is 24, while the average age of men having their first child is 27. These ages are older than in previous years, where women and men have their first child at 23 and 25, respectively.
NCHS also emphasized how in 2018, an average woman would have only one biological child compared to three in the 1960s.
What could be the reasons
Sociologists suggested a few factors to explain the declining trend. First is that contraception has become so much more reliable. Second is that adults now choose to get married later in life, and most births in America still happen within the context of marriage.
"People are waiting to have kids until they feel ready, they've got a good job, they feel mature enough to devote themselves to parenting, they feel like they're going to have a good partner," explained Karen Benjamin Guzzo, the director of the Carolina Population Center at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, to NBC News.
The third reason, though they stated that this could be less influential, is the availability of "medically assisted reproduction techniques" like in vitro fertilization, which allow adults to have children at older ages.
Size of the U.S. average family plummets
The size of the average U.S. family, defined as individuals living together who are related by birth, marriage, or adoption, has declined from almost four in 1960 to three in the past year.
It continues to spiral down. According to the 2022 USA Average Household Size, the average U.S. household size is already at 2.6 people per household.
In large part, sociologists proclaimed this could be due to financial concerns.
According to a sociology professor at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Julia McQuillan, adults started realizing how big a commitment and expensive having children were after experiencing the "economic downturn" of 2007 to 2008.
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