Gen Z is having fewer kids. Does declining US birth rate worry you? Tell us.

Are you having kids? Are you not having kids? We’re getting personal for this next installment of USA TODAY’s Forum.

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“Do you want kids?”

As a human woman, it’s a question I’ve been asked my entire adult life. Family members, friends, perfect strangers, doctors, my partner’s clients and colleagues, keyboard warriors and my own co-workers have all felt entitled to ask.

The truth is no, I don’t.

And I’m not alone.

Thanks in part to millennials like me, the U.S. fertility rate dropped to a historic low in 2023, the most recent year we have data, with only 3.6 million births recorded. And as the birth rate has declined, panic has ensued.

Elon Musk has called it “one of the biggest risks to civilization,” adding that “if people don’t have more children, civilization is going to crumble.”

Musk has 14 children with at least four women.

American women, on the other hand, are having 1.3 kids on average. Why are we having fewer kids, if any at all?

Most of us just don’t want to. That’s the reason 57% of child-free adults under 50 cite, according to a 2024 survey from the Pew Research Center.

Having had this conversation ad nauseam throughout my adult life, I know that “I don’t want kids” isn’t a good enough answer to satisfy some folks. Many of us are worried about the current climate – both the state of our world and our environment – and whether we can even afford it, as the cost of raising a child to 18 years old has risen to nearly $240,000.

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So: Are you having kids? Are you not having kids? And are you concerned about the birth rate?

We’re getting personal for this next installment of USA TODAY’s Forum. What’s behind your decision to raise a family or remain child-free by choice? How do you feel about millennials and Gen Z waiting longer to have children – if they even have them at all? Take our poll below or send us an email with the subject line “Forum birth rate” to [email protected]. We’ll publish a collection of your submissions from all sides of the issue.

Janessa Hilliard is the director of audience for Opinion at Gannett.