Scholars working jointly from the Institute for Family Studies and the American Enterprise Institute have documented an important fact about national growth: Red states produce more homegrown citizens that blue states.
Not only are parents much more likely to move out of blue states for red ones, they are more likely to become parents, and many times over, in red states. These scholars explain,
Republican states (those that Trump won in 2020) generally have markedly higher fertility rates than Democratic ones (those that Biden won), suggesting that more men and women feel confident about starting and raising families in red states than blue ones.
The data on this fact is actually very clear. And very consistent.
And the overall fertility decline has been less dramatic among those who vote red.
It is clearly the more conservative states in our Union that are fostering more and larger families than liberal states that boast “progressive family policies.” These scholars assert, “The red-state advantage regarding fertility can be chalked up to several cultural, policy and economic factors.”
They explain red states have better economic advantages for those starting families: more affordable housing, hotter job markets, and lower taxes.
Culturally, red states are more likely to value and promote marriage and family life and they offer parents more strategic educational choices for their children. These scholar hold that “These financial and cultural features of red-state life end up being more important than the suite of avowedly pro-family policies of their blue counterparts.”
Faith Also Plays a Big Part
It is also found that couples who take their faith seriously are more likely to have more children, and thus own the demographic future. This is true for serious Christians, Orthodox Jews, Muslims and Mormons. Some progressives and secularists have called this the “fundamentalist problem” – demonstrating that social Darwinism ironically rewards religion.
But faith also makes men better mates.
The Institute for Family Studies tells us, “Evidence suggests that religious fathers and husbands – more likely to be found in red states – prioritize marriage and family life, including housework, in ways that make family life more appealing to the women in their lives.”
All of this does not mean that red states are doing well in the necessary task of reproducing ourselves as a nation. Today only South Dakota is meeting the bare minimum replacement level of 2.1 births per woman. All other states are south of this essential threshold. Even Mormon-heavy Utah and Iowa are markedly below replacement level.
These scholars at the Institute for Family Studies explain,
The bottom line is both blue and red states have work to do to create a culture and a family-friendly economy for their young adults, one that would steer more states to a sustainable rate of family formation — about 2.1 babies per woman.
But red states with more conservative voters are indeed doing much better and their more liberal countrymen and women have some real catching up to do.
But if current fertility trends are any indication, Democratic states will have to work much harder to revive the fortunes of family life in their borders. That’s because trends in family migration and fertility suggest the blue-state family model is more family unfriendly than the red one to Americans interested in starting, growing or raising a family.
What we should all take away from this data is what the venerable University of Chicago political philosopher Richard M. Weaver famously told us: ideas have consequences. What people believe in their heads comes out in their actions. And conservative ideas are clearly better at guaranteeing humanity’s tomorrow because they lead to more fertility and growing families.
Those ideas and red states just need to do even better at this essential task if our nation is to grow properly.
Related articles and resources:
Why Americans Over and Under 50 Say They Don’t Have Kids
Pro-Life and Pro-Family Policies are Essential for Conservatives
Brad Wilcox Exhorts Young People to ‘Get Married’
China’s Population Drops by 2 Million in 2023 Due to Record Low Birth Rate
Evangelicals Can Heed This One Trend from Mormons and MuslimsDiscarding Genesis 1, U.S. Population Set to Decline This Century Amid World Population Collapse
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