Older moms are the new trend? The median reproductive age of U.S. women rose to 30 at an all-time high

According to NBC reported on the 8th, according to a new report from the U.S. Census Bureau, in the past 30 years, the fertility rate of women in their 20s in the United States has declined, while the fertility rate of women in their 30s and early 40s has risen, and this phenomenon has become more and more common in the United States. This trend has raised the median reproductive age of U.S. women from 27 to 30, an all-time high.

The fertility rate for women in their 20s has dropped dramatically

The fertility rate of women over the age of 30 has increased significantly

From 1990 to 2019, the overall fertility rate in the United States declined, and the decline was relatively stable, but the age at which women gave birth changed. The fertility rate for women aged 20 to 24 has fallen by nearly 43 percent, and for women ages 25 to 29, the fertility rate has fallen by more than 22 percent. Meanwhile, an analysis by the Census Bureau based on data from the U.S. National Center for Health Statistics shows that fertility rates for women ages 35 to 39 have increased by more than 67 percent, and that of women ages 40 to 44 by more than 132 percent.

Although the census bureau reports data as of 2019, the COVID-19 pandemic over the past two years has further delayed the birth time of many women. The U.S. birth rate fell 4 percent in 2020, the largest single-year decline in nearly 50 years. During the pandemic, some women may have given up on the idea of parenthood or having more children due to economic uncertainty and greater health risks for pregnant women infected with the virus.

Foreign-born women saw the largest increase in the median reproductive age

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the median increase in the reproductive age of U.S. women over the past 30 years has been among foreign-born women, from 27 to 32, and from 24 to 28 for black women.

Demographers have analyzed that the increased reproductive age of foreign-born women is related to their situation or the reason for coming to the United States. For black women, pursuing an education and career is important, which is one of the reasons for delaying childbearing.

Women are more focused on education and careers

College-educated women are now more inclined to invest in their education and careers so that they are more financially better off when they have children, and working-class women want to wait until they have more children when they are more financially secure, all of which have contributed to this shift.

In the past, parents often relied on their children for income, so they would have more children. For example, when the economy is more based on agriculture, they let their children work in the fields. But in the United States for the last century or more, parents invested more in their children's development and provided more support when they went to school and entered adulthood, so economic factors are also one of the important bases for contemporary women to consider childbearing.

Or lead to a slowdown in U.S. population growth

In the United States, women's fertility tends to decline with age, so the trend of delaying childbearing age may lead to a slowdown in U.S. population growth.

Experts say that in some areas of the United States with low birth rates and low numbers of immigrants, the decline in population could create labor shortages, rising labor costs and the need to support retirees. Such changes would put enormous pressure on Social Security, Medicaid, and Medicare, and Americans might have to pay higher taxes to support a growing retirement population.

European women are getting older with their first childbearing

As we all know, the more developed the economy and the more perfect the welfare guarantee policy, the more reluctant the people are to have children.

According to data released last week by the Federal Statistical Office, German women are giving birth to their first child later and later, and in 2020, the average first birth age of German women will be 30.2 years old. This figure has been on the rise for the past 10 years, with the average age of 29 when German women first became mothers 10 years ago.

In the rest of the EU, the situation is much the same. According to Eurostat, the average age of first childbearing for women across the EU is 29.5 years. The average age of first-born women in Italy is the largest, at 31.4 years, followed by Spain (31.2 years) and Luxembourg (31.0 years). The lowest first childbearing age for women is Bulgaria (26.4 years), Romania (27.1 years) and Slovakia (27.2 years).

The unmarried rate of 30-year-olds in Japan is 55%, and the fertility rate in South Korea is at the bottom

According to a new data released by Japan's Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications last week, the number of children under the age of 15 in Japan was only 14.65 million as of April 1 this year, a decrease for 41 consecutive years and a record low. The proportion of children and adolescents in Japan's total population is 11.7%, a figure that has declined for 48 consecutive years. In addition, the number of births in Japan in 2021 also hit a record low, only 840,000, which shows that Japan's trend of declining birthrates is becoming more and more obvious every year. Not only is there a reluctance to have children, but the willingness of young Japanese people to marry is also declining. According to statistics, the unmarried rate of 30-year-old young people in Japan has reached 55%, of which Tokyo is close to 60%.

According to World Bank data, the fertility rates of South Korea and Singapore have continued to bottom in recent years, and in the 2020 global fertility rankings, the two countries ranked first and second from the bottom respectively. South Korea's total fertility rate has been below 1 for four consecutive years since 2018, meaning that the average number of children per woman of childbearing age is less than 1 child, well below the 2.1 that ensures a stable population.

Upstream News Compiled by Ruochen Yang