How to Reverse Nation’s Declining Birth Rate
McConnell said some stop short of having the number of children they desire, due to fertility, medical, and other issues. One way to address declining fertility, she said, would be to find ways to enable those parents to have the number of children they wish.
“Any time we see people being able to make fertility choices that suit their family, I think that’s a success,” McConnell said. “I think people choosing to have children later in life is also a success. … To the extent that we can make it possible for people to reach whatever their desired family size is, I think that that would be a societal priority.”
The event, “America’s declining birth rate: A public health perspective,” brought together Langer, McConnell, and Henning Tiemeier, the Chan School’s Sumner and Esther Feldberg Professor of Maternal and Child Health.
Addressing the declining birth rate has become a focus of the current administration — President Trump has floated the idea of a $5,000 “baby bonus” and $1,000 “Trump Accounts” that were part of the “One Big Beautiful Bill” approved this summer.
Panelists at the virtual event pointed out that a declining birth rate is not just a problem in the U.S. It has been declining in many countries around the world, and for many of the same reasons. As people — particularly women — become better educated and wealthier, they tend to choose smaller families than their parents and grandparents.
Tiemeier said that changing societies and cultures have altered the very nature of relationships between men and women. He added sex education to the list of key changes that have fueled the birth-rate decline, particularly for teen pregnancies. The question of whether declining fertility is a problem is too simple for such a complex issue, he said.
In a country with a growing population, where women have, on average, three children, the birth rate falling to 2½, slightly over the replacement value, would be beneficial economically, ensuring more workers to support the population as it ages.
Countries with a birth rate below 1, whose population is already contracting, risk too few workers to fuel their economy, not to mention the social and societal impacts of a lack of young people.
Tiemeier and McConnell said that other countries have tried simply paying people to have more children, and it doesn’t work. Even if the declining birth rate was considered a catastrophe, McConnell said, governments haven’t yet found levers that can bring it back up.
That doesn’t mean there aren’t things government can do to help parents navigate a difficult and expensive time in life. Programs to lower the cost of childcare have been instituted in some cities and states, and more can be done.
Tiemeier said both Republicans and Democrats are interested in supporting families, though their approaches may be different. So this may be a rare issue on which they could find common ground.
Other areas of associatedneed include maternal health — a significant part of the population lives in healthcare “deserts” far from medical care. Programs designed to reach those areas, as well as a national parental-leave policy, would help young families navigate that time.
“Any measure that we take will have a modest effect, because there are so many things contributing to this,” Tiemeier said. “To say that we are waiting and looking for a measure that has a big effect is an illusion. There are no big effects in this discussion.”
Alvin Powell is an author and senior science writer at the Harvard Gazette. This article is published courtesy of the Harvard Gazette, Harvard University’s official newspaper.
