US fertility rates and marriage rates both hit record lows in 2017 so far - what are the causes?

Birthrates continued the long downward trend in the first quarter of 2017, signifying that the long expected rebound in child rearing with a reported improving economy is unlikely to take place anytime soon. So what are the causes for the continued decline in both US fertility rates and marriage rates.

The chart above elucidates an obvious correlation between the state of the US economy and the number of babies being born. Sing the 2008 financial crisis and subsequent recession, fertility rates declined significantly. But according to the media and the government, the US economy is back on track. So shouldn't the fertility rate have bounced back by now? The fact that fertility rates continue to fall might suggest that the US economy is not as rosy as the media and government tell us. Or are there other contributing factors that are making people think twice before having a child?

As the graph above shows, younger women in their 20's are having fewer children while women in their 30's and 40's are having more children than ever before. Are women waiting longer to have children? Or are Millennials in their 20's deciding not to have children because they're busy pursuing their career? Is it possible that the desire among young adults to have children is just not as strong because of feminism or a lack of interest from men? Is the decline of influence of the church, a traditional normative factor that ensured the continuity of marriage and generations for centuries in the Western world, to be considered as a primary cause? Or are younger adults too preoccupied with technology and pornography to fall in love, get married, and have babies? It's likely that all of these factors are adding up to cause this aggregate decline in marriage and child rearing.

Members of the MGTOW community, the group of men who have given up on women and decide to stay single, point to the rise of feminism causing a schism in the once more traditional relationships between women and men. They suggest that Third Wave Feminism has caused women to either distrust or even outright hate men for their assumed patriarchal oppression. The chart below shows that only 26% of American women identified as a feminist in 2016. Is this a significantly large enough portion of the Us population to explain the continuous annual decline in child birth? It's quite possible.

My belief is that it is truly a combination of financial uncertainty as a result of an ongoing economic problem facing the younger generation receiving low pay while being saddled with student debt, the loss of the influence of the church in everyday life that would reinforce people to get married, the decision by women in particular to focus on their careers, the constant use of technology like smartphones that can entertain people and have them become chemically addicted as though they were on drugs, and a general distrust and schism between the sexes as a result of the influence of feminism on mainstream American culture. Ultimately, I don't see the decrease in birthrate to be a major concern because immigration fills in the gap in the labor force, and I simply think that people should have the freedom to decide what they want to do concerning marriage and child rearing.

See articles below for more information

http://www.cnn.com/2017/08/08/health/fertility-rate-lowest-recorded-2017/index.html

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/03/health/united-states-fertility-rate.html

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/to-your-health/wp/2017/06/30/the-u-s-fertility-rate-just-hit-a-historic-low-why-some-demographers-are-freaking-out/?utm_term=.6e696cd54c30