Amid plunging births, scholar says parenthood needs to be touted as ‘pathway to happiness’

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Jul 26, 2025 / 09:00 am (CNA).

Catholic marriage and family expert Brad Wilcox is calling for efforts to make having a family in the U.S. “more attractive” in the wake of “troubling” data released by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) showing that U.S. fertility rates are at an all-time low.

“It’s troubling that we’re actually hitting a record low here when it comes to fertility in America,” Wilcox, a sociologist who directs the National Marriage Project at the University of Virginia, said in an interview with EWTN News Nightly Anchor Mark Irons on July 25.

The CDC released data this week showing the fertility rate in the U.S. plummeted to a record low in 2024.

According to data from the CDC, from 2023 to 2024, the general fertility rate declined from 54.5 to 53.8 births per 1,000 women aged 15 to 44. This means that the general fertility rate was less than 1.6 children per woman in 2024, well below “replacement rate,” which is about 2.1 per woman over the course of her life.

The CDC also found that in 2024 birth rates for women ages 15 to 34 declined, while rates for women 35 to 39 remained unchanged. Notably, birth rates for women aged 40 to 44 increased by 2%. The CDC further noted that while the general fertility rate declined, the number of births rose 1% from 2023 to 2024 to a total of 3,628,934.

“This is a pretty marked decline that we’ve been seeing unfolding here in the United States,” Wilcox said, adding: “It’s partly a consequence of the fact that we’re also seeing in recent decades a decline in marriage, which is one of the most important drivers of declining fertility in the U.S.”

The CDC’s latest report is based on more comprehensive data from birth certificates than provisional data released in April. This year’s data is a continuation of a similar downward trend from last year, which also saw birth and fertility rates drop to record lows.

At the time, it was the fewest number of babies born in the United States in a year since 1979 and the lowest fertility rate recorded in American history — just under the previous record low set in 2020.

In reaction to the crisis, the Trump administration has made several efforts to incentivize more births, including through provisions in the “Big Beautiful Bill” passed earlier this month such as a $200 increase in the child tax credit and the $1,000 so-called “baby bonus.” The administration has also backed efforts to expand access to in vitro fertilization through an executive order in February.

Wilcox, who is the author of several books and numerous articles on marriage, fatherhood, parenting, and religion in both academic and popular publications, said “three things are really important” to reverse the societal trend of declining birth rates in the U.S.

In the first place, Wilcox advocated for “making marriage more attractive and attainable.” Secondly, he argued for the need to make owning a home more affordable, especially for first-time buyers.

Lastly, he said, “the third thing that we need to do is to really make having kids more attractive.”

“A lot of Americans think today that becoming a parent is a pathway to misery,” he said. “What we’ve seen in the data is that there are no groups of Americans who are happier than married dads and married moms.”

“I think we need to do a better job of communicating to the broader public how much becoming a parent is a pathway not to misery, but to a life of greater meaning, purpose, and generally happiness,” he concluded.

Wilcox is a Catholic convert and the father of nine. His most recent book is titled “Get Married: Why Americans Must Defy the Elites, Forge Strong Families, and Save Civilization.”