USA: women’s fertility rate down, pet ownership up

The fertility rate of American women is down at 1.76 births per woman in 2017 compared to the 2.08 births per woman in 2007.

Over the ten-year period pet ownership is up in America. In the past decade dog ownership is up 29%. There has been a 43% increase in cat ownership by seniors in the last decade in America. Women are responsible for most of the growth in the cat overpopulation in America¹.

Cost

I’m sure there are many reasons why American women are having less children today compared to 10 years ago but it would seem that one of those reasons is that they are substituting a pet for a child. The reason is probably cost. Apparently, not including college expenses, it costs $233,610 to raise a child in 2015 until the age of 17. It cost around $15,000 to look after a domestic cat for the lifetime of the cat depending upon the quality of care provided. If this is a reason, family budgets are tighter now than ten years ago. The financial crash of 2008 has contributed to this.

Careers

It is probable, and I will be reliant upon American women to confirm this, that there are more women pursuing careers in 2018 than there were in 2008. Busy lives encourages cat ownership. We have heard about this a lot on the Internet. Cats are perceived as independent requiring little maintenance. This is an inaccurate assessment but it does encourage ownership. Notwithstanding this trend, the main reason for giving up on a cat is cost so people are still underestimating the financial aspects of cat ownership.

There’s a movement on Facebook to make women traditional again. I presume that that is a desire for women to remain at home as a housewife and have kids rather than follow a career and have pets.

Larger Families

It would be nice to hear from people on this. Without in any way intending to be racist an advocate of making women traditional again says that America is allowing the immigration of people who go on to have large families. I guess he or she is referring to the fact that Americans who have lived in the USA for generations are having smaller families compared to recent immigrants who have large families. He or she wants Americans to have larger families.

1. globenewswire.com