This article focuses on how fertility changes the U.S. population, which comes with its pros and cons. The article covers some very valid facts, that birth rates have declined and it altered our population a lot. Women joining the workforce, is what jumpstarted the decline of fertility rates. As Dr. Christopher Murray says,”women have gotten more educated and participate more in the workforce and they get access to health services, no surprise, fertility has come down tremendously.” Which is all true, with the world being more vast, many stages of life are being pushed to later years. The article states how marriage is being put off to later years and that is a huge determining factor of when families being to reproduce.
I believe this article hit on some very true points. The comparison between the 1950’s when women were not fully included in the workforce. To our current time period, where everyone including women are included in our working body. It has effected our birth rates, which is the most natural way of gaining population. Many people look on this as a con and say that the U.S. should change this, but based on the United State’s population charts, we have a high life expectancy. Which can accommodate a higher age of reproductive stages and marriage.
Nedelman, M. (2018, November 09). Fertility rates cut in half since 1950 — but the population is still growing. Retrieved November 14, 2018, from https://www.cnn.com/2018/11/08/health/global-burden-disease-fertility-study/index.html
I think that it is concerning that even though fertility rates ate lowering and yet the populations growing. On the last FRQ we were asked ways, I think, to lower birth rates. Since women are holding off of having kids and are more in the workforce and yet the population is still growing, can you think of any other ways to prevent it from rising?
The dots are all connecting seemingly. It is very true that fertility rates have decreased since the 50s by a tremendous amount but it is shocking that they continue to decline. Do you think the rates are going to lead to some sort of solution to fix the declining rates while maintaining a steady growth rate in population?
Continued population growth is to be expected, because of increased life expectancy, but I think the cause of fertility decrease should be questioned more. Women working and having better health care access is most likely a large factor, but perhaps there are biological reasons why people are having less kids, which should be researched further.