EP 345 Older Americans Dominate America as Birth Rates Plummet

The Associated Press headline screamed ‘birth decline gives U.S. slowest population growth rate since 1918’. Wow, that was a long time back. So why is this happening now and what are the implications? Thanks to Dowell Myers, a professor of demography and urban planning at USC, we unpack the many issues surrounding the low birth rate. As this goes on various regions of the country are winning new residents while others, like my beloved Northeast, are losing population. All this becomes very important in 2020, a U.S. Census year, when Congressional representation–and political power–are at stake. And since America has always been a youth dominated culture, what happens when the age pyramid is inverted and the old, not the young, dominate the landscape? We’ve seen it happen in countries like Japan and it’s not healthy, or even normal, for a society. Of course, in this description I’ve begged the question of why with a robust millennial generation, of childbearing age, this is happening. You’ll have to listen as we break down those aspects of the story.

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