National Public Radio published an article titled, “U.S. Birthrate Fell By 4% in 2020, Hitting another Record Low.”
The National Center for Health Statistics, part of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said, “The number of babies born in the U.S. dropped by 4% in 2020 compared with the previous year, according to a new federal report released Wednesday. The general fertility rate was 55.8 births per 1,000 women ages 15-44, reaching yet another record low, according to the provisional data.”
The needed replacement birthrate per female must be 2.1 births to prevent a decline in the population. Last year’s replacement birthrate was 1.6375 and a year earlier was just over 1.7.
This report went on to say, “This is the sixth consecutive year that the number of births has declined after an increase in 2014, down an average of 2% per year, and the lowest number of births since 1979. The rate has generally been below replacement rate since 1971 and has consistently been below replacement rate since 2007.”
In 1989 syndicated columnist Ben J. Wattenberg wrote a book titled, “The Birth Dearth.” In it he explains how a declining population effects a nation’s economic, political and military standing in a global community. He posits a declining population eventually means a declining influence economically, politically, and militarily among the world’s nations.
A nation’s greatest resource is its human resource and ours is dwindling.
America is already far behind the populations of China and India, and China is exerting a strong challenge to America’s financial might. Because of the U.S.’s economic superiority the lingua franca (the common language of commerce and trade) is English. If current population trajectories continue, we may need to teach our children Chinese.
Two practices that have help put a dent in live births are abortion and same-sex marriage. Since Roe v. Wade there have been an estimated 62 million abortions, and since Obergefell v. Hodges, same-sex marriages have been on the rise. The first one is killing the next generation, and the second one cannot produce the next generation.
Our Creator knew what was best for human flourishing when he told our first parents to, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth…” Genesis 1:28. But our culture seems to think we can ignore divine direction given for our wellbeing and we will continue to prosper as a nation.
For decades now the financial foundation of our democracy has been undermined by a dwindling birthrate. Our government will try to prop up our economy as long as it can but will eventually run out of money when future wage earners and taxpayers are not around to pay the bills. Judgment does not always come in the form of fire and brimstone raining down from above, sometimes it comes in the form of letting us make our own decisions and then just letting us live and die with the consequences.
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