The baby bust

Washington Post: "Honey, I shrunk the kids" might well have been the title of last month's National Vital Statistics report, which shows that the U.S. birthrate has hit a record low. The U.S. population isn't shrinking -- yet. But if current trends continue, the country will grow increasingly reliant on immigration to bolster the ranks of its working-age population.
Thankfully, the shrunken birthrate is largely a result of falling numbers of teen pregnancies, which have steadily declined since the 1990s, thanks in part to public awareness campaigns. Also, the graying of the population has contributed to the lower birthrate, as more people live longer past the traditional years of fertility. Nevertheless, a larger trend is unmistakable: Birthrates for women in their peak reproductive years are down. Women are waiting longer before having children and are having fewer when they finally do.
Demographic crisis
As a result, the U.S. birthrate has been dropping and is now just below replacement level. That it remains among the highest in the developed world is not much consolation: Most of the rich nations of Europe, as well as Japan, are facing a demographic crisis because of low birthrates. A village in Spain is now giving a pig to each set of new parents as an inducement, and throughout Europe other nations are resorting to such wacky and desperate measures to encourage childbirth. If current trends persist, many nations are a few decades away from an untenable paradigm of fewer and fewer working-age people supporting the rapidly growing elderly population.
Fortunately, the United States is still far removed from a problem of that scale. But countries with shrinking populations may stagnate economically, intellectually and militarily. If future generations are to carry on the American vibrancy and dynamism, the country must be prepared to embrace more babies, and more adults from around the world.