Global Decline in Birth Rates: Causes and Consequences

Fewer children are being born today due to financial burdens and changing societal values.

### Declining Birth Rates: Causes, Consequences, and Cultural Shifts
* 🌍 The world is facing a **significant decline in birth rates**, particularly in wealthy countries, which could have **profound effects on economies and societies**.
* 📉 The US fertility rate reached an all-time low of **1.62 births per woman** last year, far below the **2.1 needed to maintain a stable population**, mirroring trends seen in countries like Japan and Italy.
* 👩 Many factors contribute to this decline, including **increased educational and career opportunities for women**, leading them to **delay or forgo having children**.
* 💰 The financial burden of raising a child is substantial, with costs estimated at **$300,000 to $400,000** in the US, which deters many from starting families.
* 📱 Despite the ease of meeting people through dating apps, many struggle to find long-term partners, contributing to lower birth rates; **75% of users report difficulties in finding suitable matches**.
* 🧑 Cultural shifts are evident, with a notable **decrease in the desire to have children**; in 2003, **83% wanted to be parents**, but by 2024, that number dropped to **51%**.
* 📊 The economic implications of declining birth rates include **labor shortages**, **increased taxes**, and **rising healthcare costs**, highlighting the **urgency of addressing this issue**.
* 😊 Interestingly, studies suggest that having children is not essential for happiness, with many finding fulfillment in **careers and friendships**, indicating a shift in societal values regarding **family and personal satisfaction**.

So, the world has a problem. We're not having enough kids, especially in the richest of countries. And this is something that could have huge effects for our economy, our society, and our future. And that's probably because even while they're still in the womb, kids are really expensive. That's weird. Okay, so bad magic tricks aside, here's the really crazy part: no one seems to agree on what's really causing this decline or even what we should be doing about it. Last year, the US fertility rate hit an all-time low of 1.62 births per woman. That's the lowest birth rate since the government started tracking this statistic in the 1930s. But back in the 50s, the fertility rate was about 3.7 births per woman, and you need at least 2.1 births just to keep the population steady. And it's not just the US dealing with this problem; it's the entire world. Countries like Japan, Italy, Germany, we're all seeing similar drops. Japan, for example, recorded its lowest number of

births ever, and Italy has actually declared a national state of emergency because their birth rate is so low. But it gets even worse when you zoom out and you look at the global picture. According to the Pew Research Center, population growth is projected to flatline by the year 2100, and in some countries, it's already happening. South Korea's fertility rate, for example, dropped to 0.72 in 2022, the lowest in the world. To put that in perspective, that's less than half of what's needed to maintain a stable population. So, if this trend keeps on going, South Korea could see its population cut in half in just a couple generations. So, the other question is, what's causing people to have less kids? And this is where things get a little tricky. Some argue that it's because women have more freedom, and more women are pursuing higher education and careers, and as a result, they're waiting longer to have kids or they're choosing not to have them at all. And some people say it's the rise of dinks, or dual income no

kids households. Some people argue it's the decline of religion or the decline of fertility rates thanks to the chemicals and pesticides that's in our food. But regardless of what the real reason is, the outcome's pretty bad. And as someone who wants to be a parent someday, I just want to know what's causing this to happen. And I also want to know how expensive is it to really become a parent and how much is it going to cost our future if we stop becoming parents. There's some really interesting data behind all of this that I want to share with you, so let's get into it. Hi, my name is Andre J. Hope you're doing well. Come for the finance and stay for the magic of babies. One of the questions I had is why is no one having kids today as compared to just 20 years ago. And the truth is there's a lot of different reasons. One US study asked people between the ages of 18 to 49 why they didn't want to have kids, and 56% said

they just didn't want to. The other half said it was for a variety of different reasons, like medical, financial, having no partner, age, climate change, or their partner just didn't want to have kids. And generally, the state of the world and one really surprising reason that kept showing up throughout all the different studies that I looked at across all the different countries was that trouble finding a partner was at 15% of the people surveyed, which is really weird considering the average person spends almost an hour a day on their dating apps. It's now a lot easier than ever before to meet people thanks to apps like Tinder, POF, Bumble, e-harmony, and apps like that. But people also say, despite how easy it is to get a date, it's becoming a lot harder to find a partner for the long term to have kids with. And one of the reasons why is because of the very same technology that was supposed to help us. In fact, Pew Research found that 75% of the people they polled said it was either very or

somewhat difficult to find someone in the past year, either because they had trouble approaching them or that person didn't meet their expectations, all of which led to a burnout for a variety of different reasons that I'm sure most of us experienced at some point, like being ghosted and lied to, rejected, feeling like you're having a repetitive conversation all the time. But what's interesting to me about all these studies is that these apps, which ultimately are just tools that were meant to bring us closer together, are also the tools that keep us far apart. And I think so much of that is because social media isn't real, it's surface-level marketing, and it's hard to find authentic connections when it just seems like someone better is just a swipe away, leading to pretty grim statistics like one in five people lying about their age, one in seven lying about their income, one in eight lying about their job, all of which has led to a decline in mental health, leaving people feeling three times more stressed than people who

don't use these dating apps at all. You can go on three dates with someone and have an amazing time, and then never hear from them again. A lot of the times, apps lead us to undervalue people that we'd actually like in real life and overvalue people we wouldn't give a second thought to. Like, I know people that have met the love of their life on these apps, but also, like, the overwhelming sentiment toward these apps is they don't work. So, that's one major reason why people are having as many kids, but there's another big reason: money. I wanted to know how much does it cost to become a parent, and I found that raising a child in the US is expensive, really expensive. It costs about $300,000 to raise a child to age 17, and that doesn't include education. If you factor in college, that number jumps to over $400,000. Now, if you don't want to spend $400,000 raising a child, I don't blame you. And if instead you want to spend a

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was $400,000. Now, just for context, $400,000 invested over the course of 17 years, which is about the same as investing $2,000 a month, means that instead of having a kid, you could end up with $810,000. Another study found that parents raising just two children until they're the age of 22 would cost them an average of $750,000, including the cost of everything, factoring education, in a bigger house for a bigger family. That's not even the crazy part. The crazy part is that those studies were done between the years 2014 and 2017, so factoring inflation since 2017 means that the new estimate would be a lot closer to $1 million. And in the US, 64% of young adults who are not having as many kids as they'd like to say that it's child care costs that are the major reason why. Child care costs are growing at almost twice the rate of inflation, and it's not just an American problem either. It's a global problem. In Britain

for example, couples spend over 20% of their salaries on childcare, and I think we can all agree that it's not getting any easier for Millennials or Gen Z, who are already struggling with student debt, high housing costs, stagnant wages, and record levels of credit card debt. And when I look at the overall big picture of how much the world has changed its mind about having kids in the last 20 years, it blew my mind. Back in 2003, 83% of people said they wanted to be a parent. Fast forward to 2024, and that number dropped to 51%. In Canada, the numbers tell a similar story. In 2001, only 7% of Canadians said they didn't want kids, but by 2022, that number jumped to 34%. So, these numbers show that there's a massive cultural shift in how younger generations are thinking about their future, and it makes a lot of sense in a world where job security is no longer guaranteed, where owning a home seems like a dream for so many people, and

where potentially the food we consume is impacting our fertility, and it's no wonder more and more people are questioning whether they want to bring a child into this world. So, the next question I had is, so what? It seems like a personal choice whether to have kids or not, and if some people can't afford to or they don't want to have kids, then we should all respect it. And I still think that, but I also wanted to know what happens if this trend continues. What happens if more and more people start to think this way, and it turns out there's some really interesting effects that start to happen to the global economy? And here's what happens first. As the birth rate declines, less young people will enter the workforce, and that makes it harder for companies to find employees. And this could lead to what's called a labor shortage. And Japan is a really good example of this. In Japan, nearly 30% of the population is now over the age of 65, with only about two working-age people

supporting each retiree. Now, to put that in perspective, a healthy balance would be around four workers for each retiree. But when there's only two workers for every retired person, the financial burden on the working population has to increase. It means more people having to contribute more to Social Security and pensions, which can lead to higher taxes and reduced benefits. And this could also lead to more labor shortages. And when there's not enough workers, companies are forced to automate their jobs, which is usually not a good thing for the workers. Or they have to hire older workers to fill the gaps. And when there's a shortage of workers, their incomes tend to go up because companies have to compete more to attract top talent. And higher incomes, which are usually a good thing, can actually lead to higher costs for businesses. And when businesses face higher costs, they usually pass those higher costs to the consumers in the form of higher prices. And since there's less consumers doing the consuming, you get even higher prices. So that pay raise cancels out. And we saw this happen to

the US when inflation was higher than our wage growth. And over time, this also contributes to inflation, making everything more expensive for everyone. And all of this affects investors too. If the population shrinks, companies see less revenue, which could hurt their stock prices. So, this brings me to the question: What can we do about this? And there's a lot of different solutions that have been proposed, but not all of them have been super successful. Taiwan, for example, spent over $3 billion trying to encourage higher birth rates, but it didn't really work. France spends around 4% of its GDP on family measures, including tax breaks and childcare benefits, but it also struggles with low fertility rates. Even in countries like Norway, Finland, and Germany, where the government spends tens of thousands of dollars per child on early childhood care, birth rates continue to decline. In the US, unfortunately, parental leave policies are a lot less generous. The United States offers only 12 weeks of unpaid leave, and even then, only 56% of workers are eligible for this leave. Studies also show that women see a drop

in earnings after having children, which is known as the motherhood penalty. This pay gap stays with them for the long term, while men experience a small short-term dip in their earnings. In Britain, mothers are three times more likely to work part-time than fathers, which also contributes to the pay gap. So, this lack of support makes it really hard for parents, especially mothers, to return to work after having a child, which can discourage them from having any children to begin with. And even if we gave women more generous parental leave policies, studies show it still wouldn't completely solve the problem. Japan, for example, has a very generous parental leave policy, allowing mothers to leave for one year of paid leave at two-thirds of their salary. But fertility rates in Japan are still some of the lowest in the world, and this suggests that it's not just about offering paid leave; it's also about changing cultural norms around who's responsible for raising children. So, if we want more people to have children, we need to create an environment where it's possible to do that without sacrificing

career or financial stability for both men and women. So, making this video did kind of make me sad to realize that we're living in a world where fewer people are choosing to have kids, and the economic consequence of that could be significant. From labor shortages to higher taxes to struggling pension systems and rising healthcare costs, the effects of declining birth rates will continue to affect the world. It's a very complicated problem, and there's no easy solution, and yeah, that makes me kind of sad. So, I don't want to leave this whole video feeling sad, so I found some good news. And the good news is studies show that having kids is not really a requirement for being happy. A survey in Britain found that a mother's happiness level will go up leading up to the years of giving birth, then they'll peak at birth, but then they'll go back to normal 1 to 2 years after giving birth. In the United States, they ran a similar survey, and they found 82% said that being a parent was really enjoyable, but 29% also said it was

extremely stressful most of the time. In fact, most people surveyed said when it comes to their happiness, only 26% said having kids was important to their happiness, while over twice that amount of people, 61%, said it was just having close friends. But most people said it was about having a fulfilling career and a life that contributed most to their overall happiness, and that doesn't really surprise me. When I first started investing in 2014, I started hearing about this term called dinks, which stands for dual income, no kids, or couples that are super focused on their careers, which has allowed them the freedom to save up a bunch of money, to invest it, and then travel to see the world and live stress-free. In fact, the Census Bureau found that dinks saved an average of 9% more compared to those with a dual income and with kids, and they were also found to have a higher median net worth. It makes a lot of sense to me why people are choosing to have less kids right now, especially because

now it's a lot more socially acceptable to do that than it was before. But if there's one thing I'd like to leave you with, though, it's this: remember that watching videos with statistics and surveys is just one snapshot in history. It's just one frame of reference at this moment in time, and that will change just as it was different 20 years ago. And you might find yourself sometime later in your life changing your priorities about what you want out of life, especially as you eventually gain that freedom, financial independence, and you want to share that with someone else, whether it's with another partner or with your kids. But as always, I'd love to hear your thoughts on what you think. Are you planning on having kids someday? Do you think you'll be doom-scrolling on these dating apps forever, or do you just want to focus on your career instead? Let me know down in the comments below. As always, I hope you have a wonderful rest of your day. Smash the like button, subscribe if you haven't.

already. Don't forget to grab your free stocks. Links are down below. Go track them automatically with a spreadsheet link down below in my Patreon. Thank you so much for watching this video. I'd love to see you back here next week. I'll see you soon. Bye-bye.

Why Our Generation Is Opting Out Of Kids

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Andrei Jikh

The world is experiencing a significant decline in birth rates, particularly in wealthy countries, with the US hitting an all-time low of 1.

This trend is mirrored in countries like Japan and Italy, leading to national emergencies and projections of flatlining population growth by 2100.

Various factors, such as women's increased freedom, dual-income households, and changes in societal values, are contributing to the decision to have fewer children.

The Impact of Dating Apps and Financial Concerns on Parenthood

Many people are choosing not to have kids due to various reasons, with trouble finding a long-term partner being a surprising common factor.

Despite the ease of meeting people through dating apps, 75% of users find it difficult to connect with someone, leading to burnout and a decline in mental health.

The high cost of raising a child in the US, estimated at $300,000 to $400,000, is also a significant deterrent for potential parents.

The Impact of Childcare Costs on Parenting Decisions

Childcare costs are a major factor in the declining birth rates, with raising a child now estimated to cost $400,000 to $1 million due to inflation.

The financial burden of childcare is a global issue, causing young adults to delay or forgo having children.

There has been a significant cultural shift in the desire to become parents, with the percentage of people wanting children dropping from 83% in 2003 to 51% in 2024.

The Impact of Declining Birth Rates on the Global Economy

The declining birth rate is leading to a labor shortage, making it difficult for companies to find employees.

This imbalance is placing a greater financial burden on the working population, resulting in higher taxes and reduced benefits.

The shortage of workers is driving up incomes and business costs, ultimately contributing to inflation and affecting investors through decreased company revenue and stock prices.

The Motherhood Penalty and Its Impact on Family Planning

The motherhood penalty leads to a long-term pay gap for women after having children, while men experience only a short-term dip.

In Britain, mothers are three times more likely to work part-time than fathers, contributing to the pay gap and making it difficult for parents to return to work.

Despite generous parental leave policies, like in Japan, the low fertility rates suggest that changing cultural norms around parenting responsibility is also crucial for encouraging higher birth rates.

The Changing Perspectives on Life Priorities

Societal acceptance of certain life choices has evolved over time.

Watching videos with statistics and surveys provides a limited snapshot of history.

Personal priorities may change as individuals gain financial independence and consider sharing their lives with others.