Utah's Birth Rate Takes Plunge

Utah, long a home of supersized families, is now the state where birth rates are falling fastest. Since a 2007 peak, its fertility rate has dropped more than 37%—the steepest slide in the country—knocking Utah from first to sixth in state rankings. The shift mirrors a broader US and wealthy-world pattern: women delaying motherhood or skipping it entirely. About half of American women reach 30 without having children, the New York Times reports, and in Utah, nearly 40% of babies are now born to mothers with college degrees, up sharply since 2009. The reasons are tangled.

Polls show nearly half of the state's population belongs to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, which emphasizes big families; Utah still has more babies per woman than the national average. But the state is more diverse, housing costs have surged, and two incomes are increasingly seen as necessary. Younger women describe wanting degrees, stable jobs, and time for themselves before—or instead of—parenting. At the same time, fewer young women are staying in the church, softening the pressure to marry young and have several children. Utah still has the country's largest families, but the women raised in those households are rewriting the script. The full Times report can be found here.