A new report shows that millennials are not having enough children to replace the generation before them.
According to Indy100.com, the fertility rate in 2010 was 2.1, meaning it kept pace with deaths.
The most recent data shows the number is 1.8. That means “negative” population growth.
“The fertility rate decline is driven entirely by millennial mothers in their teens and twenties. Birth rates for all age groups of women under 30 fell to record lows in 2016,” the Negative Population Growth report said.
The report suggests that several “rites of passage” are being delayed — including moving out of your parent’s home and marriage.
“Millennials came of age during the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression,” the report noted. “Many saw their parents lose their jobs, their homes, and their dignity – and vowed they would not repeat those mistakes.”
“As a result, life-cycle milestones so prized by their Baby Boomer parents – the first driver’s license, marriage, children, home-ownership – are postponed, or abandoned altogether, by millennials,” the report said.
A survey conducted by the Wharton School of Business found that 58% of female undergraduates did not plan to have children.
That’s nearly triple the number of female undergrads surveyed back in 1992 who said they did not plan to have children.
The report sparked outrage among millennials on social media.
OR "Millennials introducing reasonable family sizes in response to their grandparents' overbreeding."
— Chris Corrigan (@chriscorrigan) November 17, 2017
If your article is about millenials not doing something the answer 98% of the time is because they are broke.
— Cat thats sick of your shit (@AaronJMitchell) November 18, 2017
1/ Counterpoint: Baby Boomers destroyed the environment making millennial a question whether having kids is ethically viable.
— David Friedlander (@SauceWatch) November 18, 2017
A lot of millenials aren't having kids because they aren't buying into the traditional idea that they should be married with 2.2 kids by 25. Independent thinking is a good thing.
— 📚 ᑭᏋTᏋᖇ ᗷ 📚 (@SweedishThunder) November 17, 2017
Many of us don't value procreation as a marker of social sucess/necessity that previous generations did.
— Mia (@dukeblueblood) November 17, 2017
*Click here to read more on this report