Written by Olivia Nater | Published: August 14, 2025
The Washington Post published an op-ed on the reasons behind the declining US fertility rate. We sent a letter to the editor in response, which wasn’t published, so we are featuring it here.
We encourage all our members and supporters to make their voices heard! See our media guide for advice on how to do that.
Re: The two reasons Americans aren’t having babies, according to data (August 14, 2025)
Youyou Zhou attributes the declining birthrate trend to two main reasons: lack of affordability, and “a cultural shift away from traditional families.” The latter could also simply be described as people increasingly preferring to have smaller families. A recent survey conducted by Population Connection confirmed that the majority of Americans desire a small family size of two or fewer kids. We also found that aside from financial constraints, the other top limiting factor influencing people’s childbearing decisions is concern over the state of the world.
Governments should focus on removing these barriers through policies that increase welfare, safety, and financial stability. Ms. Zhou instead calls for fostering cultural change “that puts the values of family first.” This sounds like it’s straight out of Project 2025. The cultural factors that underlie high birthrates are often problematic and steeped in inequality. The reason religious communities have more babies is not so much because they “make it easier,” but because they tend to give women fewer choices and freedoms. In conservative religious communities, women usually have limited bodily autonomy (through law and/or societal norms), and are expected to get married early and to stay at home and raise many children. Deeply religious areas also tend to have lower educational attainment, which itself is strongly correlated with high fertility (but was left out of the analysis), and is not something we should aspire to!
It is amusing that the article exemplifies France for its fertility rate, when it is essentially the same as the US one, and appears to be declining even faster. Indeed, even the most family-friendly countries have low and decreasing fertility.
It boils down to this: When women are free to decide what happens to their bodies and lives, and have the opportunity to pursue education and careers, most choose smaller families. Yes, there is a lot we could and should do to make parenting easier, but reverting to traditional gender roles and inequities is not it. Declining fertility is a positive development that has the added benefit of putting a more sustainable future on our already overburdened planet within easier reach.
Sincerely,
Olivia Nater
Communications Manager
Population Connection
