Crippling Childcare Costs Blamed As Birth Numbers In NY Plummet

NEW YORK, NY – High childcare costs have forced the number of babies being born in New York to critically low levels – with experts saying there are now too few births to sustain the state's population.

New figures released by the National Center for Health Statistics show that over the lifetime of every 1,000 women in the state, 1,654 children are expected to be born. But to maintain current population levels, 2,100 births are required.

Only nine states – all in the North East – have a lower rate of birth.

Nationally, 2017's total fertility rate in the United States is 16 percent lower than the required level, the NCHS reported.

In May 2018, the Centers for Disease Control revealed that the United States' birth rate hit a 30-year low in 2017 for nearly all women under the age of 40. A subsequent survey conducted by The New York Times and Morning Consult found that a big reason adults are having fewer children is high childcare costs.

New York is ranked as the fourth most expensive state in the country for childcare, according to the most recent data available from the Economic Policy Institute.

Infant care costs an average of $14,144 a month per child, which is 21.2 percent of a typical New York family's income.

Only two states in the country had a fertility rate sufficient for the population to replace itself, according to the NCHS. South Dakota had the highest overall total fertility rate (2227.5 births per 1,000 women), followed by Utah (2,120.5 births per 1,000 women). The District of Columbia had the lowest total fertility rate (1,421 births per 1,000 women).

The NCHS calculated the total fertility rates based on birth certificate data from 2017.

You can read the full NCHS report here.

Originally reported by Feroze Dhanoa

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