Perspective: Is the Citizenry of the US Population in Decline and Why?

by John Bernard, ©2026

(Jun. 22, 2026) — It has been determined that the reproductive rate of any population group must hold a minimum replacement rate of 2.1 just to maintain the status quo. When you factor in disease, accidental death and wars, however, that minimum birth rate increases substantially. Certain factors and influences affect segments of the population to choose or abandon child rearing, and the following statistics from various study groups play into predicting the likelihood of our society growing, maintaining, or diminishing.

Current Population – 341,000,000. Of that number, approximately 300,000,000 are citizens, with the remaining number being green-card holders and Illegal Aliens (Pew Research Center).

Current Birth Rates – 71% of Conservative/Republican women report being, having been or plan on being pregnant with an overall birth rate of 2.1, while 40% of Liberal/Democrat women report being, having been or plan on being pregnant with an overall birth rate of 1.5 (Institute for Family Studies).

Political Party – Currently, people identifying as or registered as Democrats are 47%, while those identifying as or registered as Republicans are 42% (Institute for Family Studies).

Children adopting Parents’ Views – Studies indicate that as high as 80% of children adopt their parents’ political viewpoints (Pew Research Center).

LGBTQ Stats – Approximately 6.5% of the total population self-describes as adhering to one of the many derivative non-heterosexual behavior groups. Of those, nearly 80% report being Liberal and/or registered as Democrats. The actual pregnancy rate to term in this population is significantly lower, with only 31% reporting having been pregnant, and no reliable sourcing indicating an actual birth rate number. Additionally, estimates as high as 54% of children raised in these households report attraction to the same sex and/or experimenting with it. Approximately 10% of the US youth population reports being LGBTQ, with their political views holding consistent with the adult population within the group (National Institutes of Health).

College – Approximately 60% of high school seniors attend college at 17 or 18 years of age. Roughly 60% of those graduate within six years. Of those, only 30% actually put the degree to work in their major or a related field. As high as 40% end up with a job that doesn’t require a degree (Pew Research Center).

K-12 Teachers – A major Pew Research Center survey found that 58% of public K-12 teachers identify with or lean toward the Democratic Party, while 35% identify with or lean toward the GOP. Self-reported ideology data from Education Week further breaks this down, showing 29% identify as liberal, 43% as moderate, and 27% as conservative.

Professors and Higher Education – University faculty identify as overwhelmingly liberal. Voter registration and campaign contribution data for higher education faculty typically show Democrat-to-Republican ratios ranging from 10-to-1 to as high as 20-to-1 depending on the discipline (Educational Freedom Institute).

It’s no secret that prevailing ideologies do two things: (1) they influence the culture and (2) they replicate through indoctrination and teaching of the youth. So, it is both instructive and a warning to remember that the three greatest influences on the youth of this nation are parents, K-12 teachers and college professors. Considering the extremely poor track record of the college cost/benefit ratio, i.e., a job commensurate with the investment, it’s an extremely poor investment of time and money if entered without serious consideration. Add to that the insinuation of ideology delivered to a young person by their first authority figure as an adult and parents should be at the very least reticent to encourage their kids to attend without having first determined if the kid actually knows what they want to do and whether the degree is necessary toward that end.

As a broader influence, in the past six decades modern-day liberal ideology has stressed questioning authority, self-admiration, hedonism, segregation and distrust between the two sexes and racial groups. The incessant pounding of fatalistic climate religion, impending doom from any number of apocalyptic proclamations about pandemics, resurgent diseases, wars, ad nauseum and you have a brew of misery that causes even the most fervent Christian questioning whether it is worth having kids or even responsible to do so. Conservatives are generally more optimistic and more family-centric as a homogenous group and less prone to me-ism which is reflected in the stats.

Modern Liberalism meanwhile has birthed a denial of what nature testifies to and has caused considerable enmity between women and men, with men becoming less the protector and women denying themselves the natural inclination to raise children, thinking it drudgery; denial of self-fulfillment and even a form of slavery. And what it has replaced it with is death; selfishness, hate, abortion, euthanasia, despondency, suicide and societal decline in morality, and a reduced prospect for society’s survival.

Ironically, in its pursuit of all things destructive, it has unintentionally sewn into its fabric the stitch of its own eventual destruction being as its core principle is hedonism. Seeing the writing on the wall and hungry for power, the leaders of the Leftist movement have decided to unilaterally dispense with all border security and immigration policies, feigning compassion, in part to address their falling numbers by self-inflicted attrition and cement a supermajority of like-minded people, i.e., illegal aliens beholden to them, which includes Leftist politicians demanding that they, too, deserve a right to vote.

Should self-avowed Communists like Platner become a predominant faction in the United States, the birth rate will tumble even farther, as even Conservatives will at some point question whether it is simply cruel to bring children into a nation of slaves.

Semper Fidelis;

John Bernard