Developed nations across the world are speeding toward a population collapse simply because people aren’t having children (and they are killing millions of them through abortion). Here in the United States, the fertility rate continues to fall every year and is already below replacement level at just 1.6 births per woman in 2024 (an all-time low). And a new estimate from the Congressional Budget Office is even more pessimistic than last year’s.
Last year, the CBO estimated that in 2050 the US population would peak at 372 million people before beginning to decline. This year, they’ve apparently revised that by 8 million (bringing the anticipated number down to 364 million) because of “smaller projected net immigration through 2029 and lower projected fertility rates through 2055.” By 2030—just four years from now—the number of deaths is expected to exceed the number of births.
The population drop-off developed nations are forecasting (and beginning to vividly see in places like Japan) is not surprising. We’ve told generations of young women and men that marriage and family are just a choice some people make but are not inherently valuable in themselves, that children will hold back their careers or keep them from doing the things they want to do, that pets are a replacement for a child, and that babies are a choice rather than a gift from the Creator. This kind of philosophy has consequences! And the nose-diving birth rate is just one of them.
Of course, we’re also missing over 66 million US citizens who were never born because they were murdered in their mothers’ wombs via abortion! And we aren’t just missing them . . . because they were never born, we’re also missing the kids and grandkids they could have had.
Ideology has consequences. And the anti-natal views of our current cultural climate that elevates personal autonomy and freedom while devaluing the beauty and gift of family and children certainly have grave consequences.
In a biblical worldview, children are a blessing—a gift from the Creator—and family is the backbone of society. It’s the first and most fundamental institution God created: “So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. And God blessed them. And God said to them, Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it. . . .” (Genesis 1:27–28)
It won’t be long before America will be feeling the societal and economic effects of the plunging birth rate. So what’s the answer? Well, it’s the same answer to every single other societal problem plaguing us today: It’s the truth of God’s Word and the gospel of Jesus Christ. That’s what changes lives for now and eternity.
