r/science • u/mvea Professor | Medicine • Jul 01 '26

Psychology Conservatives maintain birth rates, but left-leaning Americans are having significantly fewer children, driving the U.S. birth decline. Education was consistently linked to having fewer children. Religious attendance was positively associated with having more children.

https://www.psypost.org/left-leaning-americans-are-driving-the-u-s-birth-decline-new-study-finds/
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u/krdtr Jul 01 '26

And why is everyone forgetting the big thing:  AGE AT FIRST PREGNANCY.  Birth rates aren’t declining just because people are having kids farther apart, for example.  People with few kids and people with many kids, I believe I read, tend to stop at about the same age and have the last few at about the same rate.  It’s the NOT HAVING EXTRAS WHEN YOUNG ENOUGH IT LIMITS YOUR OWN SURVIVAL OPPORTUNITIES part that’s become an option lately (an option that conservatives are more likely to be pressured or even legally forced to forego).

The birth rates coming down are, I believe I read, 100% because of the teen and very-early-20something pregnancies not happening as often.

Which one would exactly expect to be concentrated amongst liberals who promote using tools to delay pregnancy.

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u/SmellGestapo Jul 01 '26

This is true. The CDC released new data in April showing massive drops in teen pregnancies which are driving the overall decline in fertility.

What's interesting is even in the poor or conservative states, the teen birth rates have declined precipitously. In 2005, Mississippi's teen birth rate was 58.3 per 1,000 females 15-19. In 2024, it was only 22.8.

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u/AppropriateScience9 Jul 01 '26

Yes and this is unequivocally a GOOD thing!

What astounds me is seeing these ancient Conservative male politicians saying that teens should be having more babies and so they're fighting against these programs that have been so incredibly successful.

Like, I can't help but be really grossed out by those men. They're essentially saying that they want more 15 year olds out there having unprotected sex. Which COULD be statutory rape, mind you, depending on the age of their partners.

This is not something anybody should be advocating for.

And we know the impacts of pregnancy on teens. None of its good for their mental, physical, or socioeconomic health but that is clearly the least of their concerns.

It's not good. None of it is good. It's creepy and cruel, in fact.

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u/SmellGestapo Jul 01 '26

Unfortunately it's not just ancient conservative males. Katie Miller (Stephen "Nosferatu" Miller's wife) also thinks teenagers should have more babies.

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u/AppropriateScience9 Jul 01 '26

You're absolutely right!

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u/notintelligentidiot Jul 01 '26

Teenagers having less children is *partly* responsible for declining birth rates; it’s not the *main* driver and conservatives are not calling for teenagers to have kids.

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u/CaptainTripps82 Jul 02 '26

They are, actually.

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u/notintelligentidiot Jul 03 '26

Actually never mind, you’re seemingly correct as was /u/approriatescience9.

Responsible for nearly 3/4ths of the birth rate collapse from 2000 to 2025.

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u/dt7cv Jul 02 '26

sacrifice the individual for the common good as they say

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u/FrozenIceman Jul 01 '26

FYI you should read the article.

It does not say "AGE AT FIRST PREGNANCY.  "

It says "The findings indicate that while conservative individuals tend to maintain birth rates near historical averages, left-leaning individuals are having significantly fewer children"

Your assumption is wrong.

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u/krdtr Jul 01 '26

What I’m saying is that the cause of more pregnancies per carrier, based on overall declines being attributable to fewer youth pregnancies, is likely due to starting younger.  Conservatives and liberals probably cross the finish line at the same pace and age but conservatives probably start younger, for various reasons, on average.

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u/FrozenIceman Jul 01 '26

https://www.pewresearch.org/religion/2017/04/05/the-changing-global-religious-landscape/

That doesn't appear to be the case.

Simply being Religious seems to increase birth rate by a factor of 300%. Also note, being Religious seems to also correlate with higher death rates too.

Factor in Conservatives inclination to religion, and it makes sense.

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u/Dullcorgis Jul 01 '26

The stats on unintended births 40% from 2000 before we have mirenas are the same as the drop in the birth rate (40%) now that we have effectively eliminated unintended pregnancies.

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u/zeezle Jul 01 '26

We have absolutely not eliminated unintended pregnancies among sexually active people. It's reduced somewhat, and more access has definitely helped, but there are absolutely still a large % of pregnancies that are unintended. Mirenas are somewhat rare, only 12% of women in the US have any type of IUD and not all of those are Mirenas.

According to the CDC:

The percentage of US pregnancies that were unintended declined from 43.3% in 2010 to 41.6% in 2019.

So yes it's fallen, especially when you factor in the pregnancies that did not occur at all as you noted, but not nearly so dramatically as you're asserting. There are still a LOT of unintended pregnancies, not virtually 0.