According to a new study from the University of New Hampshire, the United States is experiencing a period of low births not seen in decades.
The study, by UNH demographer Ken Johnson, says that over the past 17 years there have been 11.8 million fewer births than would have been expected, despite the fact that there are more women able to have children. The number of births is at the lowest since 1979.
New Hampshire is no exception to this trend.
In fact, Johnson said New Hampshire is in a particular predicament: Births here have gone down by 17% since 2007, but the number of women of child-bearing age in the state has only decreased by about 2% over that period.
“The drop in births was not because there were fewer women of child-bearing age, but because of fertility rate declines fostered in part by the increasing numbers of young women who have yet to have children,” Johnson said.
Jonson said that while New Hampshire’s overall population is aging, there aren’t as many babies being born to offset the loss of population. In-migration remains the main way New Hampshire can continue to grow, he said.
Johnson said a key to understanding diminishing fertility rates could be changes in marriage patterns.
“Fertility rates among married women are considerably higher than among unmarried women, so delays in marriage — or a retreat from marriage — is likely to diminish fertility,” Johnson said. “So, the decline in marriage rates is likely another contributing factor to the growing number of childless women and lower fertility rates.”
Factors like the cost of having children, the high price of childcare and overall uncertainty in the economy could also be contributing to why fewer people are getting pregnant, according to Johnson.
