What’s behind the falling birth rate

The birth rate in the U.S. is at an all-time low at just 1.64 children per woman, below the replacement level. That number has been declining for the past decade and pandemic hasn’t helped. Any illusion that quarantines would led to a baby boom quickly fizzled. Across all races, ethnicities and economic classes, more women are delaying parenthood, reducing the number of children that they are having, or choosing to remain childless. So why are so many women putting children off or deciding to be child-free? And what impact will the low birth rate have on the country’s economic future? This hour, we’ll talk with Bowling Green University demographer KAREN BENJAMIN GUZZO, and Penn State University, Berks sociologist LAUREN JADE MARTIN. And Philadelphia Magazine writer GINA TOMAINE shares her story of wrestling with the parenting question.