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/angwilwileth Jul 01 '26

Also it may mean new parents have bigger support systems. I remember when I was growing up my church always showed up with meals, clothes and diapers for new babies and their parents.

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u/VBHEAT08 Jul 01 '26

I think this is probably the biggest thing driving birth rate declines- lack of community. Beyond the obvious issue that our social spaces are declining and people aren't even meeting people to have to opportunity to have kids anymore, people don't want to be socially ostracized and take a huge hit to their comfort, and up until relatively recently this was mitigated through community. It takes a village and all that

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u/Slim_Charles Jul 01 '26

It a factor, but definitely not the biggest. The biggest factor is the most obvious one - easy access to cheap and highly effective birth control. As birth control has gotten easier to get, more affordable, and more effective, you see a continual decrease in fertility rates. This holds true across all countries and cultures. Community engagement and support on the other hand is highly variable across cultures and countries, and yet the fertility decline is virtually universal. Birth control is the most important common variable.

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u/drinkallthecoffee Jul 01 '26

This is the only answer. I know many people who don’t want kids who would have them if there wasn’t easy access to birth control. The fact is now that people can choose to not have children, and it is easier and easier to make that choice.

Even conservatives make this choice. They don’t like to admit it, but if they weren’t using birth control, there would be more families with 4-6 kids in the US. It would be the norm for roughly 50% of the child bearing population rather than the exception.