Men, conservatives most likely to view US birth rate as too low: survey

October 7, 2024

A new survey released by YouGov shows that views on America’s declining birthrate differ based on one’s gender and political ideology.

The Christian Post reports that the survey examined responses from 3,386 U.S. adults who were questioned about their views on the American birth rate falling below replacement level, which is defined as “the level at which a given generation can exactly replace itself.”

The Centers for Disease Control reported in April that 3.59 million babies were born in the U.S. last year, which is a 2% decline from 2022. The report noted that “The rate has generally been below replacement since 1971 and consistently below replacement since 2007.”

29% of those surveyed about the declining birth rate responded that they were “not sure” if the trend was good or bad. 27% said that “just the right number of children were being born” and 22% said that “not enough children are being born.”

When broken down along ideological lines, the latter category rose to 43% of respondents who identified as “very conservative” while only 9% of those identifying as “very liberal” said not enough children were being born.

Meanwhile, 35% of respondents who identified as “very liberal” said that too many children are being born, compared to just 15% of conservative respondents.

When gauging responses along gender lines, a higher percentage of men (30%) said that the U.S. birth rate was too low while 26% of women surveyed said that the birth rate was too high.

According to the Christian Post, nearly half of conservative (47%) or very conservative (46%) men did not think that people in the U.S. were having enough children while a much smaller share of conservative (25%) or very conservative (39%) women felt that way.

The survey was conducted on August 5 and has a margin of error of 2%.

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