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Podcast: Plain English with Derek Thompson
Episode: Why Fertility Rates Are Plunging—in the U.S., South Korea, and Everywhere Else
Description: Last year, there were 3,661,220 babies born in the U.S. That sounds like a lot. But historically speaking, it’s really not. It’s actually 15 percent below our peak in 2007. And it means America’s total fertility rate—the average number of babies a woman today is expected to have in her lifetime, based on current trends—is essentially stuck at its all-time record low. For decades, the U.S. birthrate has been below the so-called replacement level of 2.1. Today it’s around 1.6.Sometimes, I feel a little weird talking about fertility and birthrates like they’re just ordinary...