The surprising thing about the declining U.S. birth rate

Dr. Hans-Peter Kohler:

So, this report is big news, and, on the other hand, not all that surprising.

So, the U.S. stood out among high-income countries as one that had relatively high fertility. And the Great Recession changed that, and across many high-income countries, the recession resulted in declining fertility rates.

The really surprising part is that we have now been quite some years through the recession, and unemployment rate is very low, and that trend hasn't changed.

So these low fertility rates, despite relatively good economic conditions, are really surprising. I wouldn't argue that they're a disaster or particularly worrisome. I would argue that the U.S. demographics in general continue to be relatively healthy, at least compared to many other high-income countries.

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