America is heading toward a demographic cliff. The U.S. birthrate has trended downward since 2007 to a now-historic low. Business Insider contributing writer Kelli Maria Korducki joins to discuss her new reporting on the topic.

The United States is confronting a demographic shift as birth rates have steadily declined since 2007, reaching a record low of 3.6 million births in the most recent year reported. This trend is affecting both higher education and the labor market, with colleges experiencing decreased enrollment and some institutions closing due to fewer incoming students. 

Efforts to address these challenges include colleges broadening their recruitment strategies and focusing on student retention. The government has introduced a $1,000 investment fund for babies born between 2024 and 2028, though such incentives have shown only modest effects on birth rates. Experts note that increasing immigration remains the most effective policy to counter population decline, a trend observed in several countries worldwide.

Breaking down the demographic cliff facing the U.S.

America is heading towards a demographic cliff. The U.S. birth rate has trended downward since 2007 to a now historic low. That decline is having a profound effect on colleges and workplaces alike. It was the focus of new reporting called America's Great People Shortage. Business Insider contributing writer, Kelly Maria Korducki, wrote the article and joins me now. So help me understand what this cliff is and when we're gonna hit it. Or we have our day to hit it, I guess. Well, we're sort of hitting it right now. So basically, the American birth rate peaked in 2007. So since 2007, there have been fewer babies being born pretty much every single year. And so last year, we hit the record low 3.6 million births in the U.S. And looking back to 2007, which was when the peak at 4.3 million births took place, that was 18 years ago. So if you do the math, those 2007 babies are turning 18. They're entering the workforce. They're entering colleges and universities and other degree-granting institutions. And the workforce, companies, and colleges are struggling to find enough people to make it work. Yes, the stakes there. So colleges don't have as many people enrolling. Employers can't find people to do the jobs. What are some of the other dire consequences? Well, a big thing is that a lot of colleges and universities that are dependent on tuition from new students are being forced to close. So last year, 31 degree-granting colleges and universities closed across the country. So this is a pretty significant challenge for them to overcome. Institutions are doing what to try to solve this problem? So it's really interesting. Colleges, a few of the schools that I talked to are taking a multi-pronged approach. They are trying to expand their enrollment targeted group. So they are, instead of just looking at high school seniors, they're expanding to continuing ed, to earlier interventions, and just experimenting with the way that they approach their student body and prospective students, and also retention rates are a big deal. So they're trying to find incentives, ways to attract students and keep them for the full four years. Anything the government can do about this? So the government has, the big beautiful bill has a $1,000 investment fund for new babies born between 2024 and 2028. And sometimes those kinds of baby bonuses have been shown to raise birth rates very slightly. But the biggest and most tried and true way to alleviate population decline is to increase pathways to immigration. Now obviously that's a politically loaded intervention, but it is the one that has been demonstrated to work as policy. And we have about 10 seconds left. Other countries, how does America compare? This is happening all around the world. So it's not just an American problem. Kelly Maria Korducky, thank you so much.

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