Asked to name the most pressing problem confronting the American family, many conservatives would say its breakdown since the advent of the welfare state. That’s a valid answer, but a larger problem is looming today: a lack of family formation. Fewer Americans are getting married and having children.
Birth rates began to plummet with the generational shift from Gen X (born 1965-1979) to Millennials (born 1980-1994), according to professor of psychology Jean M. Twenge’s Generations: The Real Differences Between Gen Z, Millennials, Gen X, Boomers, and Silents—and What They Mean for America’s Future. Fertility had been rising prior to the Great Recession of 2008, a recent Pew report notes, but it fell off sharply after that, and has yet to recover.
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