Posted on 09/28/2023 6:59:28 AM PDT by Twotone
A growing number of people in America prefer families of three or more children, hitting the highest desire for large families since 1971.
According to a Gallup survey released Monday, the number of people who prefer smaller and larger family sizes are statistically tied, bouncing back from a decadeslong trend of believing one or two children was ideal.
"Overall, this recent survey shows that Americans might finally be climbing out of the anti-family bomb shelter caused by the myths of the 1960’s of a population explosion disaster," Terry Schilling, the president of the American Principles Project, told the Washington Examiner. "Favoring more children is a sign that Americans are returning to basic principles and values that life was made for — bringing forth the next generation through the family."
Forty-five percent now favor larger families, with 29% finding three children as ideal, 12% who prefer four, and 2% each who prefer five, six, or more.
That is compared to 47% who believe two or fewer children is ideal, with 44% preferring two children and 3% preferring one. Two percent believe the ideal family should not include children.
Gallup pointed to several social trends from past decades that may have contributed to the decline in having children, including the preference for larger families "plummeting" from 70% in 1967 to 52% in 1972 "fueled at least in part by concerns about a global population explosion, resulting from the 1968 bestselling book entitled The Population Bomb."
The organization started tracking this data in 1936, when 64% preferred three children, reaching a peak in 1945 at 77%. However, by 1973, the strong preference for families of one or two children became the norm, evidenced by the 50% drop in children-per-family from the peak of the baby boom to 1.8 children in 1980.
What stands out to Schilling, however, is that only 8% do not wish to have children, leaving over 90% with the desire for children at any amount.
"The 8% of America that’s anti-family has way too much representation in our culture — especially in entertainment, politics, news media, academia, and even corporations," Schilling said.
Gallup notes that people under the age of 30 are at least twice as likely to say they do not want children, but the "vast majority" continue to prefer having children. Twenty-one percent of that age group already has children, and 63% hope to have children in the future.
Moreover, 69% of those who already have children want more, as well as 15% of 18- to 40-year-olds who want to be parents someday. Six percent of childless people aged 41 and older also wished they had children.
While ideal family size is not significantly different from men to women, other demographic traits do trend in certain directions.
Young people aged 18-29 are more likely than any other age group to prefer larger family sizes, and black and Hispanic people are also more likely to prefer larger families. In addition, Republicans, conservative independents, and lower-income residents tend to prefer families with more children.
By contrast, Democrats, non-religious, and wealthy residents are more likely to prefer only one or two children.
Despite stated preferences, birth rates have been on the decline, and adults are starting families much later in life, which is highly correlated to smaller family sizes.
In 2021, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported the average age of a woman who had her first child was 27.3 years, a record high.
Part of the answer for fertility declines, author Melanie Notkin writes in a piece for the Institute for Family Studies, is that much like the effect of The Population Bomb in the 1960s and 1970s, "we have a similar trend with the rise of anti-natalism where its nihilistic supporters believe the world is too sad a place to bring children into, along with climate change 'doomerism.' More practically, the current economy makes family forming more challenging for many young Americans."
However, the public has appeared to cut through some of the popular trends, Schilling told the Washington Examiner.
"There are so many policies across the cultural and economic spectrum that make family formation much more difficult, and it’s a true testament to the beauty and intrinsic value of the family that in spite of all the hurdles before us, we still desire children and family," he said.
Could it be the 3 and 4 kid families are all being paid for by welfare and big wasteful govt ?
More kids more gravy train $$$.
so much knowledge has been lost.
Big families are actually more cost-effective. Once you have all the basics like cribs and such, you can simply reuse them from child to child. You keep good clothes and hand them down to the next youngest. Plus as they age you have built in baby sitters for the younger ones by the older ones, so you don’t need daycare.
So much is positive about large families.
and I really do believe there are WAY WAYWAY more mexicans living here than the census is telling us
I am jealous of Mexicans, they dont need no steenking AAA card, if a family members car breaks down there is a huge crowd of family mechanics to show up to the rescue and not just a tow truck
Went to a very large family reunion recently. Boomers had zero, one or two children, or a few with three children. The next couple generation after boomers had a large percentage of couples with four children. Very surprising to me.
What the hell. Everyday I read stories about Americans not wanting kids and families and most don’t even want to get married when you can always find a broad to “hook up” with while you’re waiting for you cell phone to recharge.
While the Christian sect “Quiverfull” isn’t entirely in sync with other conservative Christian sects, its idea of having the maximum number of children is a winner.
However, like other sects, the emphasis on Christian values almost requires that they be in well structured communities separate from the secular public that not only do not share their values, but have the tendency to chase anti-Christian fads as a mob.
Thus such communities need home schooling, or at least private religious schooling, as well as Doctors, Nurses, and merchants who share their values. Lawyers as well, to act as shields against those who hate and want to destroy them.
None of this is unreachable, but does take some work.
Yes Chicago NY St louis Los Angles are sample cases.
“However, by 1973, the strong preference for families of one or two children became the norm”
That’s because Paul Ehrlich and the Overpopulation hysteria took over the entire country with even Nixon making a big deal out of it and the Rockefeller Commission concluding that “we have no use of further population increase”.
Having 5 kids became an Enviro-crime in the 70s.
They even enshrined this madness in a little decision called Roe v. Wade.
The whole “promise” of post-modernist socialism and progressivism as that we are all autonomous individuals, free to “pursue our bliss,” whose family and support network would be the State.
It was of course, a huge and destructive lie.
As America’s economy collapses in debt, money-printing and crony-corruption, the ONLY support network will be, once again, be the family.
Some people are starting to understand that.
I just went to a baby shower. The young lady is one of 8 children. I talked to one of her sisters who is also pregnant. She said, this is my 4th, so I’m in practice at this. This is a wealthy family. There were kids from 1 to 20 running all over the place.
When times are hard—Big families are logical. More hands to keep things going—even if they must wear rags. What is the old saying? “The Rich get Rich and the poor get children.” The Rich, do not have a lot of kids—they die out. There are rewards to family life that can not be found in other places.
Life will find a way.
The ONE thing that is a real negative with a large family is the cost of college (assuming a working spouse has health insurance through their job)
But everything else is just scare tactics to get people to have fewer children. It is the same agenda as abortion and many other things. The left is wedding to the overpopulation myth and pushes all these things with lies to attempt to get what they want which is fewer people. But ironically then they complain about the negatives of a shrinking population and then demand unlimited immergration which completely negates any positives that might have been gained.
I’m happy to hear this — just that more people want any children. Our people are so into careers and incomes that I have wondered if many viewed children as a burden with no payback.
Mainly it’s my perception of what today’s women are thinking.
“Forty-five percent now favor larger families, with 29% finding three children as ideal, 12% who prefer four, and 2% each who prefer five, six, or more. “
None of them are white.
How can this be so? Kamala said folks are deciding not to have children because climate change.
Law and Order: CRIB (Crib Recycling Investigation Branch) sounds funny until youre the bad guy in an episode.
You would think that reusing a crib is wise but that is what started CPS poking around in my little brothers home because a crib that was newly manufactured and deemed safe a couple of years previous was no longer determined to be safe and things only got more stupid from there.
East Asia is not politically correct. The patriarchy rules there. So they should have a high birth rate right? Nope. It's even lower there. We can ignore China because it is communist. Japan. South Korea. Singapore. Thailand.
MORE COVID VAXXES means more miscarriages.
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