Almost anytime you turn on the TV or watch a movie, you see someone who has been divorced, someone else who is in their mid to late 30's and single, hear about a scandalous situation of the main start sleeping with a guest star, and a couple living together without being married. Likely, these can all be seen in the same episode of a show or in the same movie. These societal trends of marriage, divorce, and cohabitation seem like the "norm", and in honesty, they are. Unfortunately, people don't see the danger that can accompany these trends that are becoming "norms". With higher divorce rates, couples marrying later in life (if at all), premarital sex, and cohabitation [not to mention the rise in homosexual couples that are physically unable to have children!] comes the significantly lower birthrate in the US and all over the world.
As you can see in the chart above, there has been a significant decline of births in the US over the last several years. There are many other factors that could potentially be influencing this drop (increasing women's wages in the workplace, increased female college attendance, and fewer unplanned pregnancy) but there is no doubt that the changes to the societal "norm" has a huge impact on how many or even IF couples decide to bring children into the world. It doesn't seem like it could be that drastic now, with only a drop of 0.4 million births. But if this trend continued, where could that put our country in 50 years?
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