The pace of babies born each year in the U.S. has slowed to a new record low, according to an analysis of 2023 birth certificate data published Thursday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Last year’s slowdown marks an official end to the uptick in new babies that began during the COVID-19 pandemic. At least 3,591,328 babies were born in the U.S. in 2023, down 2% from the 3,667,758 born in 2022.
In our lifetimes at least, yes. An aging population means more people who need help and less people to supply it. We all need more help as we get older, and we’re already facing staff shortages for geriatric care. And of course if you’re in the US, there’s genuine fear of SS not being available once we’re eligible to use it.
We could probably change course and mitigate these issues by increasing pay for Healthcare workers to incentivise taking care of the elderly, reducing or eliminating student debt so more people can seek higher education in Healthcare, improved access to Healthcare to prevent problems while we’re young so they don’t catch up with us when we’re old, and easier paths to legal immigration so we can bolster our population while continuing to collect taxes for more robust social programs. But that probably won’t happen because the people in charge are too old and/or wealthy to ever be affected by this kind of thing.