Why do you think birth rates and marriage rates are declining?
February 18, 2026
Why do you think birth rates and marriage rates are declining?
45 comments
Kids are expensive, yo.
-gestures wildly at the state of the world-
You’ve been paying attention to the news, right? I’m in the US, and you couldn’t fucking pay me to consider having children. Not that anybody in power in the US would be able to bring themselves to part with a single red cent to incentivize childrearing. (Plenty of those rich pieces of shit would pay money to torture and then murder babies, though, and have done just that.)
And, still speaking about the US, almost half of the states in the country are still sticking with the dumbass federal minimum wage which hasn’t been raised in, what, a decade? More than that? How the fuck does anybody expect a couple to throw a wedding on $7.25 an hour, let alone birth and raise a whole new human?
We no longer feel like we have to have kids or that it’s our duty. We have more power than before to make our own decisions
They’re both financially and mentally expensive in this economy.
Finance. Plus men want prince’s treatment too.
Life frequently requires a two income household to survive now, and that’s without a daycare bill that costs thousands of dollars.
Women are realizing that they actually have a choice now and that there’s more to life than motherhood.
…and the fact that many people can’t afford to have kids
Men
Got pregnant with my kid unexpectedly, but one and done and in the process of divorce—being single is better and without the proper income or support (both emotionally and financially), having kids and a spouse is largely overrated.
Multiple reasons. People can barely afford life, let alone kids. More women are choosing not to have them. Many feel it’s not moral or ethical to bring kids into this world. More can choose not to because they don’t want to.
I got so many plans for myself and my career and none of them involve me being pregnant lol
In this economy?
When I talk to older people, it sounds like they had kids because that’s just what you did. They never thought about if it would make them happy, or if they were emotionally or financially stable enough to give the kids a good life. It seems like people give more thought to their decisions now.
*gestures at everything*
The uptick of education. It’s not affordable anymore, and it’s hard to be able to afford housing when your student loans are taking up all of your money. Most of my friends are two-income families trying to move out of their parents’ houses… do you really think they’re going to try to have kids then?
We’re tired of being expected to work full time and also do all the house chores and childrearing. Men benefit from marriage and parenthood; women do not.
In the US, doctors in some states are afraid to treat pregnant women with non-viable pregnancies, and as a result women have died. Women have also been charged with murder after having a miscarriage.
Because people now have the option to not have children and not get married.
More and more women are realizing having kids and/or being married is a choice and not an obligation. It really is a wonderful thing and I’m so happy they get to live their lives the way they want and I hope they enjoy every minute of it. I’ve always wanted to be married but I also always knew being a mom wasn’t my jam. I eventually met my CF husband and we are blissfully happy with a cat. I would never tell women they should get married because, like having kids, it isn’t for everyone.
Our government is hostile towards the age group thats fertile. No programs for parental leave, expensive day care costs, health insurance rates, extreme abortion bans, plus cost of living in general.
Marriages I don’t know, but birth rates is a pretty clear phenomenon: having children is simply not worth it, and now people have the education, forethought and freedom to make that choice.
Coincidence that birth rates and marriage rates are declining along with the alcohol industry?
The economic reasons have already been stated in other comments, so I just want to add:
Because the women of yesteryears fought tooth and nail for independence so the women of today can live on their own rather than having to get married and have kids just to survive. My grandmothers couldn’t have their own bank accounts and apartment, but I can!
Men are no longer competing with other men for a wife, they’re competing with that woman’s free will and peace of mind.
Low wages, high cost of living, lack of support, daycare costs more than monthly rent, etc. Take your pick
Babies are expensive, and we have methods of preventing pregnancy if you don’t want a child.
Marriage rates are falling because Women don’t have to get married in order to survive. We can make our own living, live on our own, and be independent. Having a partner is optional (as hard as amatonormativity goes…) and people don’t need to settle for someone who’s not worth it to keep a roof over their heads.
Women don’t have to choose between shitty husbands and shitty poverty, so they stay away from both. As for having fewer children, childcare costs more than a mortgage and those can surpass $2000 a month.
Many men aren’t worth the headache and at least half of US marriages end in divorce anyway. Kids are too expensive.
Independence went up. Tolerance for settling went down.
quality husband & father index down -50,000 points
The decline in marriage rates is easy. Attitudes about marriage are changing. The average age at which people marry has steadily increased with each new generation. And marriage simply isn’t as societally expected as it used to be. many people don’t feel the need to marry at all.
As for birth rates, I think ultimately people don’t feel very certain about the future. We’re living through a time of upheaval. Political divisiveness, civil unrest, wealth inequality Climate change, global pandemics, etc. I think it all combines into a stew of uncertainty about the future. More people will choose not to have kids during times of upheaval. People have more kids when they feel secure about the future their children will inherit.
I think in general a population gets married and have more babies during the times of financial prosperity and plentiful resources which is sadly not the case in current time. I think not wanting to get married and have babies is also a part of human evolution.
Healthcare too expensive. Diapers and formula way too expensive. Childcare too expensive. Housing too expensive. And my country is a dumpster fire
Because the reality of having children is far different than the fantasy. Women are realizing they have a choice and it’s not something one has to do. I’ve never wanted to have kids and I didn’t. I have many friends with children and so much of child rearing just seems nightmarish and it doesn’t end when they are adults. I appreciate my parents for everything but I never wanted the job for myself. As far as marriage goes, also, a reality that is far different than the reality. People are realizing that marriage and children isn’t the only way to have a fulfilling life.
As a 32 year old female who’s been dating on and off for the last 4 years, many of the men I have met are not boyfriend, husband or let alone father material. I am not a man hating woman by any means, but I truly don’t understand whats happened to men. Respect for women has declined, intentionality, chivalry, it just barely exists anymore. I can’t imagine settling for a sub par man just so I don’t “end up alone”. My dog fulfills most of the love needs that I have, adding a man to my life would only happen if he makes it significantly easier, better and more joyful. TBH, I can live without sex lol.
We just don’t want to. I like being selfish with myself and my body. I hope to one day get married but I have yet to make it out of a talking stage. As a 30F, I swear it’s just leftovers with the single men. All the good ones are already married. I’m just focused on my own goals now and minding my business.
In short I think it’s a combo of more childfree adults and people who are just waiting longer than previous generations to embark on parenthood.
My friends who want kids and don’t have them yet blame the state of the economy/not being able to buy a house. But the older I get, the more my peers are having kids.
About 75% of people I know are parents now (aged 35-40) compared to maybe about 50% of them 5 years ago.
There are also a chunk of people who are happily childfree with no intention of changing their minds.
Women finally have the choice and marriage with children isn’t appealing anymore especially when they don’t need to get married just to survive. Seriously, if you were given the choice between real freedom and true actual happiness or a prison sentence that cripples and completely changes you, robs you of your identity for the rest of your life but you may get money from your jailer who chases after you all day and night with his dick out, which one would you go for?
Contraception, no one wants the responsibility, the family institution is dead, and the world is already way overpopulated so who cares?
It’s not “Women are mean because they won’t fuck everyone and they have jobs.”
I want to point out that a big part of this is that teen pregnancy has declined dramatically
Have you met men???
It’s because people don’t want to parent while they work full time, and everyone has to work full time to survive.
It’s such a complex question. I think the comments here have done a fantastic job highlighting the complexities of why people aren’t. Just to add in that this is an absolute systemic issue as well. The village is gone, the support isn’t there, it’s so hard to raise kids on one income, a lot of people don’t want daycares “raising” their children. Many women spent so much of their upbringing raising their siblings. Millennials and generations forward have it so much harder than the previous gens. We can’t afford housing, we can’t afford food, we can barely afford to survive. I’m in Canada so I can’t speak to the horrors of what’s happening politically in the US but from friends I’ve heard that dating is hard even here – I can’t imagine finding a life partner safely right now there. I feel very lucky having the partner I do because I do trust him. But he’s also a man. He’ll never understand the fear of being a woman.
I guess in summary; while marriage, careers, child-free, motherhood etc. are what feminism fought for us to be able to legitimately choose for ourselves the reality is that right now is such an incredibly unsafe and unsupported time for women. The world has been historically unsafe for women and I think that plays into it.
Because people have more options now.
Neither men or kids are easy to deal with and women are realizing if something doesn’t add value to their life they don’t have to do it, whether forced or by societal pressure.
– housing prices
– healthcare crisis
– high crime rates
– right wing/red pilled Men
– Grocery prices
– ICE agents raiding schools and kidnapping our already existing children
– Men
– women taking leave to give birth and quickly being fired or overlooked for promotions as a result
– Men
– citys are barely livable for childhood enjoyment (little parks, green space, public spaces for kids/teens)
– diapers are expensive
– childcare is expensive
– “stranger danger” has skyrocketed, we don’t have the same sense of community
– seriously i cannot stress this enough; M E N
What opened my eyes up was the fact that I knew if I were to have kids, it would be ME AND ME ALONE who would be sacrificing damn near everything about myself. My physical health, hormonal health, emotional health and financial health. It’s so unfair that women have to bear the brunt of it ALL. I watched too many fabulous women get pregnant with some mediocre man’s child, ruining her body and her mental health to have said baby, then watch her career totally plummet. It’s just so not fair that women have to destroy everything about ourselves to have kids and like I said- most of the time it is with some totally mediocre man that went out and cheated on them anyways… it’s absolutely mind blowing that women jump into having children so casually.
And not to mention the risks of having a special needs child is too high and it’s frightening. The system does not make it easy to raise a child with special needs.
45 comments
Kids are expensive, yo.
-gestures wildly at the state of the world-
You’ve been paying attention to the news, right? I’m in the US, and you couldn’t fucking pay me to consider having children. Not that anybody in power in the US would be able to bring themselves to part with a single red cent to incentivize childrearing. (Plenty of those rich pieces of shit would pay money to torture and then murder babies, though, and have done just that.)
And, still speaking about the US, almost half of the states in the country are still sticking with the dumbass federal minimum wage which hasn’t been raised in, what, a decade? More than that? How the fuck does anybody expect a couple to throw a wedding on $7.25 an hour, let alone birth and raise a whole new human?
We no longer feel like we have to have kids or that it’s our duty. We have more power than before to make our own decisions
They’re both financially and mentally expensive in this economy.
Finance. Plus men want prince’s treatment too.
Life frequently requires a two income household to survive now, and that’s without a daycare bill that costs thousands of dollars.
Women are realizing that they actually have a choice now and that there’s more to life than motherhood.
…and the fact that many people can’t afford to have kids
Men
Got pregnant with my kid unexpectedly, but one and done and in the process of divorce—being single is better and without the proper income or support (both emotionally and financially), having kids and a spouse is largely overrated.
Multiple reasons. People can barely afford life, let alone kids. More women are choosing not to have them. Many feel it’s not moral or ethical to bring kids into this world. More can choose not to because they don’t want to.
I got so many plans for myself and my career and none of them involve me being pregnant lol
In this economy?
When I talk to older people, it sounds like they had kids because that’s just what you did. They never thought about if it would make them happy, or if they were emotionally or financially stable enough to give the kids a good life. It seems like people give more thought to their decisions now.
*gestures at everything*
The uptick of education. It’s not affordable anymore, and it’s hard to be able to afford housing when your student loans are taking up all of your money. Most of my friends are two-income families trying to move out of their parents’ houses… do you really think they’re going to try to have kids then?
We’re tired of being expected to work full time and also do all the house chores and childrearing. Men benefit from marriage and parenthood; women do not.
In the US, doctors in some states are afraid to treat pregnant women with non-viable pregnancies, and as a result women have died. Women have also been charged with murder after having a miscarriage.
Because people now have the option to not have children and not get married.
More and more women are realizing having kids and/or being married is a choice and not an obligation. It really is a wonderful thing and I’m so happy they get to live their lives the way they want and I hope they enjoy every minute of it. I’ve always wanted to be married but I also always knew being a mom wasn’t my jam. I eventually met my CF husband and we are blissfully happy with a cat. I would never tell women they should get married because, like having kids, it isn’t for everyone.
Our government is hostile towards the age group thats fertile. No programs for parental leave, expensive day care costs, health insurance rates, extreme abortion bans, plus cost of living in general.
Marriages I don’t know, but birth rates is a pretty clear phenomenon: having children is simply not worth it, and now people have the education, forethought and freedom to make that choice.
Coincidence that birth rates and marriage rates are declining along with the alcohol industry?
The economic reasons have already been stated in other comments, so I just want to add:
Because the women of yesteryears fought tooth and nail for independence so the women of today can live on their own rather than having to get married and have kids just to survive. My grandmothers couldn’t have their own bank accounts and apartment, but I can!
Men are no longer competing with other men for a wife, they’re competing with that woman’s free will and peace of mind.
Low wages, high cost of living, lack of support, daycare costs more than monthly rent, etc. Take your pick
Babies are expensive, and we have methods of preventing pregnancy if you don’t want a child.
Marriage rates are falling because Women don’t have to get married in order to survive. We can make our own living, live on our own, and be independent. Having a partner is optional (as hard as amatonormativity goes…) and people don’t need to settle for someone who’s not worth it to keep a roof over their heads.
Women don’t have to choose between shitty husbands and shitty poverty, so they stay away from both. As for having fewer children, childcare costs more than a mortgage and those can surpass $2000 a month.
Many men aren’t worth the headache and at least half of US marriages end in divorce anyway. Kids are too expensive.
Independence went up. Tolerance for settling went down.
quality husband & father index down -50,000 points
The decline in marriage rates is easy. Attitudes about marriage are changing. The average age at which people marry has steadily increased with each new generation. And marriage simply isn’t as societally expected as it used to be. many people don’t feel the need to marry at all.
As for birth rates, I think ultimately people don’t feel very certain about the future. We’re living through a time of upheaval. Political divisiveness, civil unrest, wealth inequality Climate change, global pandemics, etc. I think it all combines into a stew of uncertainty about the future. More people will choose not to have kids during times of upheaval. People have more kids when they feel secure about the future their children will inherit.
I think in general a population gets married and have more babies during the times of financial prosperity and plentiful resources which is sadly not the case in current time. I think not wanting to get married and have babies is also a part of human evolution.
Healthcare too expensive. Diapers and formula way too expensive. Childcare too expensive. Housing too expensive. And my country is a dumpster fire
Because the reality of having children is far different than the fantasy. Women are realizing they have a choice and it’s not something one has to do. I’ve never wanted to have kids and I didn’t. I have many friends with children and so much of child rearing just seems nightmarish and it doesn’t end when they are adults. I appreciate my parents for everything but I never wanted the job for myself. As far as marriage goes, also, a reality that is far different than the reality. People are realizing that marriage and children isn’t the only way to have a fulfilling life.
As a 32 year old female who’s been dating on and off for the last 4 years, many of the men I have met are not boyfriend, husband or let alone father material. I am not a man hating woman by any means, but I truly don’t understand whats happened to men. Respect for women has declined, intentionality, chivalry, it just barely exists anymore. I can’t imagine settling for a sub par man just so I don’t “end up alone”. My dog fulfills most of the love needs that I have, adding a man to my life would only happen if he makes it significantly easier, better and more joyful. TBH, I can live without sex lol.
We just don’t want to. I like being selfish with myself and my body. I hope to one day get married but I have yet to make it out of a talking stage. As a 30F, I swear it’s just leftovers with the single men. All the good ones are already married. I’m just focused on my own goals now and minding my business.
In short I think it’s a combo of more childfree adults and people who are just waiting longer than previous generations to embark on parenthood.
My friends who want kids and don’t have them yet blame the state of the economy/not being able to buy a house. But the older I get, the more my peers are having kids.
About 75% of people I know are parents now (aged 35-40) compared to maybe about 50% of them 5 years ago.
There are also a chunk of people who are happily childfree with no intention of changing their minds.
Women finally have the choice and marriage with children isn’t appealing anymore especially when they don’t need to get married just to survive. Seriously, if you were given the choice between real freedom and true actual happiness or a prison sentence that cripples and completely changes you, robs you of your identity for the rest of your life but you may get money from your jailer who chases after you all day and night with his dick out, which one would you go for?
Contraception, no one wants the responsibility, the family institution is dead, and the world is already way overpopulated so who cares?
It’s not “Women are mean because they won’t fuck everyone and they have jobs.”
I want to point out that a big part of this is that teen pregnancy has declined dramatically
Have you met men???
It’s because people don’t want to parent while they work full time, and everyone has to work full time to survive.
It’s such a complex question. I think the comments here have done a fantastic job highlighting the complexities of why people aren’t. Just to add in that this is an absolute systemic issue as well. The village is gone, the support isn’t there, it’s so hard to raise kids on one income, a lot of people don’t want daycares “raising” their children. Many women spent so much of their upbringing raising their siblings. Millennials and generations forward have it so much harder than the previous gens. We can’t afford housing, we can’t afford food, we can barely afford to survive. I’m in Canada so I can’t speak to the horrors of what’s happening politically in the US but from friends I’ve heard that dating is hard even here – I can’t imagine finding a life partner safely right now there. I feel very lucky having the partner I do because I do trust him. But he’s also a man. He’ll never understand the fear of being a woman.
I guess in summary; while marriage, careers, child-free, motherhood etc. are what feminism fought for us to be able to legitimately choose for ourselves the reality is that right now is such an incredibly unsafe and unsupported time for women. The world has been historically unsafe for women and I think that plays into it.
Because people have more options now.
Neither men or kids are easy to deal with and women are realizing if something doesn’t add value to their life they don’t have to do it, whether forced or by societal pressure.
– housing prices
– healthcare crisis
– high crime rates
– right wing/red pilled Men
– Grocery prices
– ICE agents raiding schools and kidnapping our already existing children
– Men
– women taking leave to give birth and quickly being fired or overlooked for promotions as a result
– Men
– citys are barely livable for childhood enjoyment (little parks, green space, public spaces for kids/teens)
– diapers are expensive
– childcare is expensive
– “stranger danger” has skyrocketed, we don’t have the same sense of community
– seriously i cannot stress this enough; M E N
What opened my eyes up was the fact that I knew if I were to have kids, it would be ME AND ME ALONE who would be sacrificing damn near everything about myself. My physical health, hormonal health, emotional health and financial health. It’s so unfair that women have to bear the brunt of it ALL. I watched too many fabulous women get pregnant with some mediocre man’s child, ruining her body and her mental health to have said baby, then watch her career totally plummet. It’s just so not fair that women have to destroy everything about ourselves to have kids and like I said- most of the time it is with some totally mediocre man that went out and cheated on them anyways… it’s absolutely mind blowing that women jump into having children so casually.
And not to mention the risks of having a special needs child is too high and it’s frightening. The system does not make it easy to raise a child with special needs.