More and more young American adults are having their first child later than their parents ever did. It’s a trend that has been building for quite a while. In 1970, the average age at first birth was around 21. Now, it’s at roughly 27½. Birth rates for teens and those in their early 20s have dropped to record lows, while births among people in their 30s keep climbing. But why? Let’s see what’s going on.
Births are shifting into the 30s
It’s not hard to see the age pattern in the long-term national data. The average age at first birth was approximately 26½ in 2016, which increased to 27½ by 2023, according to data from the National Library of Medicine. Over 50% of all babies born in 2023 had parents in their 30s or older. Clearly, things have changed and people are looking to have children much later than they used to.
At the same time, first-birth rates among teens and people in their early 20s are at historic lows. The trend follows years of steady decline. Essentially, the timeline has shifted upwards for when people are having children, even though the total number of babies hasn’t moved in the same way.
Longer education and career paths
One of the main reasons for this change is that college is a far bigger part of early adulthood than it used to be. The jobs people train for after that also take up a big portion of their lives. It’s completely normal for someone in their mid-20s to still be in grad school or working through certifications. Switching between entry-level roles is quite common, too.
Many people who finish college or pursue advanced degrees tend to delay parenthood. They’re trying to build the kind of work life they want, and this doesn’t exactly provide a stable environment for a child.
There’s also the fact that education and career steps sometimes take longer than people expect. They might take a year off or realize that their job doesn’t fit their goals, so they decide to quit. All of these factors push the decision to have children later and later. And that’s if people decide to even have kids at all.
Money, debt, and the cost of raising kids
Let’s not forget about the cost of having a child. Many young people are dealing with student loan debts that are higher than any generation before them, along with credit card balances and rising rent. There’s also the general cost of staying afloat.
The decision to have children later is a direct result of these costs. Quite a few young adults are unsure about having kids, or don’t plan to, simply because finances feel too tight. They’re not necessarily trying to be controversial. Instead, it’s more of a practical decision because babies are expensive, and young people aren’t sure where that money would come from.
Housing costs and the idea of being “settled”
Housing is another huge factor in the delay in having children, although people may not directly recognize it. The price of renting or buying a house is often far too high for young people. It forces them to put their family plans into the “later” category.
It’s quite a change from the past, when buying a home used to line up more neatly with early adulthood. These days, lots of young adults rent for much longer. Some of them also move back in with family while they save money to eventually buy a house. Data from the Pew Research Center found that nearly one in five adults aged 25–34 still lives with their parents.
The majority of young people want to have stable housing before raising a child. As such, the delay in housing stability has a knock-on effect on young people delaying having children.
Later marriage, cohabitation, and partnership timing
Most Americans saw marriage as the start of family life. But not young people. Many people are marrying later than they did decades ago, and some of them are cohabiting more. There’s also less stigma about being single, so many people are happy being alone, well into their 30s.
Later marriage causes later first births. That’s not to say everyone who has a child is married, but many people want to wait for a steady relationship or a partner they trust before having a child. Some young people never find the relationship they expected. This changes the timing of when they have kids, if they have them at all.
Birth control and short-term pregnancy avoidance
Contraception is quite widespread these days, too. Reliable birth control allows people to avoid getting pregnant when they don’t want to, such as when they’re pursuing further education or changing jobs.
The rise in births among adults over 40 is also due to wider access to technologies like IVF and egg freezing. Of course, those tools don’t guarantee a pregnancy. But they do make later pregnancies possible in ways that weren’t widely available to the public a few decades back.
Changing expectations about parenthood itself
The entire idea of parenthood is different, too. People’s values have changed, and they’re willing to talk more openly about wanting free time and flexibility. Some just want independence. Quite a few people still want kids, just not right away. Others don’t want them at all.
Whatever people think, the fact is that parenthood is no longer the next chapter that it was once assumed to be. It’s one option among several. Young adults are trying to work out how it fits into their lives.