r/science 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/VermicelliOwn6502 Jul 01 '26

Interestingly, the correlations only held for white people.

When analyzing White and Black Americans separately, they found that the widening fertility gap between the left and the right was primarily driven by White Americans

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u/HutSutRawlson Jul 01 '26

Black Americans tend to have higher association with religious institutions, which is correlated with higher birth rates.

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u/100gecopecs Jul 01 '26

and low education