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I'm actually helping research this with my university.Returning to the subject of kids, what I consider the two major causes of declining birth dates:
1) lower rates of relationship formation. People want better than they can get so they stay single. Myself included lol I should have settled for an obese woman with a good head by now, and perhaps would have if this were 1947. In general more people are single, and age of first marriage is increasing.
2) Much lower standards of living among the middle class. Back during the baby boom the middle class could afford to have 3.9 kids per women which was the peak rate. What was normal was to buy a house in your mid 20s and have enough financial security to take care of everything.
When I was 25 I was in graduate school, I had no savings, no security, and a modest income. I was renting an apartment.
We're running qualitative interviews for people under 35 and the biggest reason that they are all avoiding having children is that they feel it will infringe on their lifestyle and prevent them from doing things they enjoy.