Become a member.

Looking for better conservative conversation? Join Ricochet for just $5/month. Think of it as your neighborhood bar: familiar faces, lively debate, and room for a different point of view. Plus: listen to most of our podcasts ad-free.

Heard at Heritage

Events | The Birth Dearth: Why the Decline in Marriage and Total Fertility Is a Genuine Crisis

Subscribe to Heard at HeritageSubscribe

Agenda

Fireside Chat

  • The Honorable Ted Budd (R-NC), United States Senator
  • Amy Kate Budd, Spouse of Sen. Ted Budd

Panel I: The State of the Family

  • Preston Brashers, Research Fellow, Tax Policy, The Heritage Foundation
  • Jay Richards, Ph.D., Director, DeVos Center for Life, Religion, and Family, and the William E. Simon Senior Research Fellow in American Principles and Public Policy, The Heritage Foundation
  • Rachel Sheffield, Research Fellow, Welfare and Family Policy, The Heritage Foundation
  • Delano Squires, Research Fellow, DeVos Center for Life, Religion, and Family, The Heritage Foundation
  • Roger Severino, Vice President, Domestic Policy, and the Joseph C. and Elizabeth A. Anderlik Fellow, The Heritage Foundation(Moderator)

Panel II: What Pro-Family Solutions Might Look Like

  • Lindsey Burke, Ph.D., Director, Center for Education Policy, and the Mark A. Kolokotrones Fellow in Education, The Heritage Foundation
  • Rachel Greszler, Senior Research Fellow, Workforce and Public Finance, The Heritage Foundation
  • Robert Rector, Senior Research Fellow, The Heritage Foundation
  • Richard Stern, Director, Grover M. Hermann Center for the Federal Budget, The Heritage Foundation
  • Roger Severino, Vice President, Domestic Policy and, the Joseph C. and Elizabeth A. Anderlik Fellow, The Heritage Foundation(Moderator)

The demographic crisis in the United States is real and a threat to society as we know it. The U.S. and almost all developed countries are failing to replace their populations. In 2022, the total fertility rate (TFR) in the U.S. was 1.665 births per woman aged 15-44. This is well below the necessary replacement level of 2.1 births per woman. Among the 38 countries in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), fertility was even lower.

This trend is a threat to the future of every developed country, including our own, especially because it reflects a decline in stable married families headed by a father and a mother. To solve this growing crisis, we need a genuinely pro-family policy agenda. To do that, however, we first need to understand the problem and identify what caused it in the first place.

Join Heritage experts, Senator Ted Budd, and Amy Kate Budd for an explanation of this issue and discussion of a policy path forward.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.