Birth Rates Are Down Can ‘Baby Bonuses’ Turn Them Around?
BY VANESSA NIRODE In response to low birth rates, the U.S. and other countries began implementing “baby bonuses” in the form of annual tax credits or monthly payouts to qualifying children’s legal guardians (i.e., biological or adoptive parents). An October 2020 CDC report, though, noted that the American fertility rate continued to drop and hit a 35-year low of 1.7 in 2019. The overall decline—which stretches beyond U.S. borders— could lead to what some population researchers like those at University of Washington’s Institute for Health Metrics & Evaluation have labeled a “demographic time bomb.” As Anna Medaris Miller explained for Insider,
Inc., there may one day not be enough young people to support the economy or aging populations.
Why the Dip in Birth Rates?
1.7 2019 U.S. fertility rate; its lowest in 35 years SOURCE: CDC 24 | DIGITAL UNICORN Q1 2021
“In order to maintain the population in the U.S.,” wrote Adam Bulger for Fatherly.com, “the fertility rate needs to be 2.1. America hasn’t done that since the 1970s.” That 2.1 represents the average number of children each Ameri-
can woman of child-bearing age would need to have to maintain the country’s current population balance. Bulger had at least one concern: An older population may strain federally-funded programs like Social Security or Medicaid, since not enough young workers would be paying into them via tax witholdings. But why the dip in birth rates? In writing for “Money” magazine in October 2019, Chloe Wilt found that a
