Both Parties Need to Get Serious About the Population Crisis

Last week, Dan McLaughlin shared some news that’s bound to inspire conservative schadenfreude. It’s been widely reported that America’s birth rate has fallen to a historic low in recent years. Fewer than 1.6 children were born per woman in 2024, a far cry from the 2.1 children per woman needed to maintain a robust population without immigration. But according to John Burn-Murdoch in the Financial Times, birth rates have declined far more steeply among progressive Americans than conservatives.

In his analysis of Burn-Murdoch’s article, Dan writes that in the 1970s, progressives were “just below conservatives around 2.7 children per family.” Now, the birth rate for progressives has fallen below 1.8, while the birth rate for conservatives has experienced a less steep decline to 2.4. “The irony of ‘great replacement’ theories,” Dan concludes, “is that the people progressives are scrambling to replace are themselves.”