Economic Pressures Lead to Decline in Family Sizes in the Mountain West
In the Mountain West, families are increasingly choosing to have fewer children, driven by economic pressures and changing societal values. This trend is part of a broader shift observed across the United States and globally, as highlighted by NPR’s series Population Shift: How Smaller Families Are Changing the World.
At a bustling play center in Cheyenne, Wyoming, Grace Moreno, a 21-year-old mother, reflects on the financial challenges she faces with her husband and their 11-month-old son. “It’s the only free place, so it’s worth it,” Moreno comments as her son plays nearby.
Having relocated from Texas for better job prospects, the couple is now confronted with soaring costs. “Our rent in Texas was like $800,” Moreno explains. “Here, it’s like $1,775.” Alongside rent, they also manage groceries, formula, car payments, and medical bills.
Too Costly for Larger Families
Initially contemplating a larger family, Moreno made the decision to undergo a tubal ligation just six weeks after childbirth. “I was kind of like, ‘Oh my gosh, my mom was right. This is too expensive,'” she admits. Their decision allows them to save towards a mortgage, aspiring for a backyard for their son’s future.
Emily Harris, a senior demographer at the Kem C. Gardner Policy Institute, notes the fertility rate in Wyoming is above the national average but still insufficient for population replacement. This trend is consistent across other states in the Mountain West, which have experienced the steepest declines in fertility nationwide over the last two decades.
Despite these trends, the region’s population continues to grow due to an influx of people seeking refuge from larger cities and desiring an outdoor lifestyle, inadvertently driving up housing costs. Harris highlights that evolving values about family structures and the financial burden of childcare are influencing these decisions.
“We have this idea of, like, the nuclear family,” Harris states. “You need to get married, and then you buy a home and then you have children … and really over the last decade or two, that kind of timeline has been halted and kind of rearranged.”
While some states attempt to alleviate housing costs, Wyoming has yet to implement such measures. State Rep. Trey Sherwood, a Democrat, emphasizes the challenge in convincing colleagues of the government’s role, as evidenced by the lack of support for affordable housing initiatives.
Sen. Bob Ide, a Republican, argues against government intervention, citing, “Fiddling with housing, you know, it gums up the wheels of the free market.”
Wyoming has enacted laws to restrict abortion access, increase childcare capacity, and ease property taxes as purportedly family-friendly policies. However, couples like Reesie Lane and Sean Thornton still find the financial demands daunting.
“Sean and I started dating and he said, ‘I don’t know, I think I want to have like six or seven kids,'” Lane recalls amid laughter. Yet, financial strains led them to reconsider, with Lane stating, “Yeah, I think we can have like one or two.”
Having navigated financial struggles through their 20s, Lane and Thornton only recently secured a home. Lane, facing personal health challenges, acknowledges, “I think that’s when we started to realize it might be too late.”
For now, the couple finds joy in their dogs, Huckleberry and Finn, who are doted on like children. “They’re a hundred percent little babies,” Lane says, affectionately displaying the dogs in their autumn-themed attire.
This article was originally written by www.npr.org
