Here’s why Americans having fewer kids won’t doom the economy

Americans aren’t having nearly as many kids as they used to, but that won’t be the blow to the US economy that many have feared, according to Fisher Investments.

In a recent note, the investment advisory firm pointed to falling birthrates around the world, with the US rate falling to a multidecade-low last year. The nation saw the fewest number of babies born since 1979, according to provisional data from the Centers for Disease Control.

That continues a long-running decline in the US birth rate, with the number falling ever since the 1960s, according to World Bank data.

But fewer babies being born isn’t necessarily a bad thing for the economy, the firm said. The birth rate has fallen before without crimping growth, such as during the ’80s and ’90s, when the economy boomed despite falling fertility the prior decade.

 

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