Katherine Boyle

So, first step is acknowledging it, but it is, you know, 1.6 is a long way to come back from, especially with a millennial generation that, you know,

waited way too long to have children.

I think there's a couple underlying factors that I don't think we talk enough about that have caused this.

When you look at our parents' generation, a lot of people didn't go to college.

They started adulthood at 18.

And the fertile window, you could say, for women was between 18 and 40.

That was the nominal window of when you could have children and it was socially acceptable.

And then we had this incredible push against fertility and against having a family young that I think the millennials really caught wind of.

It's like, everyone needs to go to college.

Extended adolescence, use your 20s to experiment and enjoy life.

You don't really need to be focused on having a family.

And what happened is the average age now of a first time, I think, mother in America is 28.

So 10 years after that 18, so you've cut the window in half.

The average age of a first-time father in America, I think, is 31.

And that's for both college-educated and not college-educated.

If you add on college on that, which I think is a real issue, it's even higher.

It's like the average age of a first-time mother is 30.

So you can understand how the birth rate's being cut in half if the entire window of when you can have children is cut in half.

because people are so focused on career and, you know, finding themselves and sort of their extended adolescence rather than focusing on building a family earlier.

You're just going to have fewer children.