New York Times: Bucks County Birthrate Falling, Out-Prioritized by Education and Careers

Over the past decade, the birthrate among women in their 20s dropped significantly in Bucks County. The trend mirrors a nationwide priority shift toward education and careers, write Sabrina Tavernise, Claire Cain Miller, Quoctrung Bui, and Robert Gebeloff for The New York Times.

The birthrate is falling fastest in urban counties, where the higher number of available jobs is giving women more incentive to wait than in rural counties.

From 1996-2007, the birthrate in Bucks County increased by three percent, compared with the rate in the previous decade. From 2007-2019, however, the birthrate plummeted by 12 percent compared with the previous period. Concurrently, the county’s female 15-44 age bracket increased from 117,000 to 107,800. 

This puts Bucks County in second place among Philadelphia’s collar counties with the highest drop in birthrate:

• Chester County recorded the highest drop at 13 percent
• Montgomery County is third with a 10 percent drop
• Delaware County had the lowest drop at six percent

Read more about the local birthrate in The New York Times.