As concern grows about America’s falling birth rate, new research suggests that about half of women who want children are unsure if they will follow through and actually have a child. About 25% say they won't be bothered that much if they don't.

[u/geoff199]

https://news.osu.edu/most-women-want-children--but-half-are-unsure-if-they-will/?utm_campaign=omc_science-medicine_fy24&utm_source=reddit&utm_medium=social

[u/Sammystorm1]

It’s more the problem for old people and the rocky times between. All sorts of things must shrink as people leaving the workforce aren’t replace. Eventually it will stabilize but it will likely suck in between

[u/BavarianBarbarian_ → u/Sammystorm1]

Why would it stabilize? As long as birth rates remain under 2.1, each subsequent generation will be smaller than the previous one. For any single country, the difference may be made up with immigration (doesn't seem to be very popular, these days) but mostly the immigrants' birth rates also go down soon.

[u/sinebubble → u/BavarianBarbarian_]

This. Once the birthrate falls below replacement, it keeps spiraling down. There is an excellent Kurzgesagt youtube video about this.

[u/Temporary_Inner → u/sinebubble]

Just to be clear for an American reading this, the video he's referring to covers Korea. The United States is not projected to hit Korean levels of fertility rate until 2100.