Growing share of childless adults in U.S. don’t expect to ever have children

[Anonymous]

A new Pew Research Center survey finds that a rising share of U.S. adults who are not already parents say they are unlikely to ever have children, and their reasons range from just not wanting to have kids to concerns about climate change and the environment.

https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2021/11/19/growing-share-of-childless-adults-in-u-s-dont-expect-to-ever-have-children/

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-11-20/more-american-adults-say-they-don-t-expect-to-have-a-child-poll

Some 44% of non-parents ages 18 to 49 say it is not too or not at all likely that they will have children someday, an increase of 7 percentage points from the 37% who said the same in a 2018 survey.

[Anonymous]

That’s a good thing, OP. You should want children.

[Anonymous]

I really hope my children will want to have children.

[Anonymous]

My DS doesn’t want children for exactly the reasons mentioned earlier. I can’t blame him.

[Anonymous]

This is happening in most “first world” countries. Japan, Korea, many European countries. I have a lot of kids but don’t care if my kids have kids (it would be fun to have 1 grandchild I guess) but I also think it’s a good thing for the environment to have fewer kids being born.

[Anonymous]

Pets have become the new children and fill a gap for many people. I've seen more prescription drug advertisements for pets then ever this year. Clearly people are caring for them and willing to spend money on them like they are children. But unlike children you don't have to worry about daycare or college tuition.

[Anonymous]

We still have plenty of immigrants who are having kids.

[Anonymous]

If you think about, purely from a financial perspective, I am doing way, way worse than my friends who did not have kids (chosen not to or just couldn't because of biology, relationships, circumstances, etc).

It is an interesting thing to see right now since I'm in the thick of it, but US society doesn't encourage having children. If anything, there are economic disincentives built into the economy. No paid leave after having a child, an expensive childcare framework that is regulated to high hell by the government (for safety reasons, is unquestionably a good thing) with no financial support of the government (which people endless dispute as to whether it is shitty or not). Tax benefits are minimal. College savings programs aren't deductible federally and student loan interest is subject to income limits that drive people out of being able to take the deductions. Factor in the caps on SALT deductions (local property taxes pay for schools and surprise, the federal government DOESN'T want to encourage this I guess) and well...here we are.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We still have plenty of immigrants who are having kids.

Actually, this isn't true. Immigration over the past four years has dwindled dramatically. If anything, the labor "crisis" employers are facing is due to not having immigrants flowing into the work force combined with a large swatch of working class people who died of COVID.

I have NO IDEA why people don't realize this or admit it. But it's evidence. Numbers don't lie.

[Anonymous]

We live in a dystopian hellscape and nothing proves it more than this.

[Anonymous]

Yeah I think the hell of the pandemic for parents won’t be driving up fertility anytime soon.

[Anonymous]

Good. There are plenty of kids to take care of, no reason to add to the pile.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We live in a dystopian hellscape and nothing proves it more than this.

+1. There will be major regrets over this when it’s really too late.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Good. There are plenty of kids to take care of, no reason to add to the pile.

Only unfortunately, our economy is structured to have the kids take care of us.

[Anonymous]

Who is going to buy all this real estate that is the main investment for most families? Declining population is not helpful to a healthy real estate market.