Babies are a status symbol in today's economy: It's the 'haves and have-nots' of who can afford children

• Having kids has become a privilege in today's expensive society, a sociologist told Insider.
• "It's almost like the haves and the have-nots," she said of who gets to have children.

The stork isn't as busy as he was over a decade ago — that's because more and more Americans can't afford his services.

The US birth rate has been falling since 2008, dipping even further when the pandemic hit. CDC data found that from 2019 to 2020, the US birth rate fell by 4% from 2019 to 2020, the sharpest single-year decline in nearly 50 years and the lowest number of births since 1979. While the baby bust wasn't as vast as predicted and more Americans are getting back to baby making, America still has 60,000 fewer babies because of the pandemic.

The reasons are plenty: Women have better access to contraception than they used to. They also now have the opportunity to prioritize education and careers. Some don't want to bring a child into a world facing a climate crisis. Others simply aren't interested in having kids because they love their life the way it is. But there's also the glaringly obvious: Kids are really, really expensive in an economy that's only getting more and more costly.

The economics of raising a family in today's society has made having kids a privilege, Karen Guzzo, Professor of Sociology and Director for Family & Demographic Research Bowling Green State University, told Insider. "It's almost like the haves and have-nots in terms of who gets to have children, because it's so expensive," she said.

As Guzzo explains, people might push off having a kid because they want to achieve financial stability first. But in reality, it may never be the right time since society makes it hard for people to feel like they can afford things like housing, health care, student loan payments, and groceries.

"And then a kid on top of that," she added.

Finances have been one of the top reasons Americans aren't having kids or are having fewer kids than they considered ideal, even before the pandemic. Millennials, the generation that covers most women of childbearing age, have dealt with two recessions before the age of 40 while juggling student debt and a soaring cost of living. Now, they're dealing with inflation for the first time after it hit a 41-year-high. While high prices are hitting everyone, they're hurting millennials the most since they're in a life stage that involves buying big ticket items like cars and houses.

It doesn't help that America is in the midst of a childcare affordability crisis. Raising a child to age 18 in America will cost parents an average of $230,000, with most of those costs in the first few years of the child's life. National childcare costs average between $9,000 and $9,600 annually, per advocacy organization Child Care Aware. That's unaffordable for 63% of full-time working parents in the US.

"I remember 17 years ago realizing that my monthly mortgage payment was going to be lower than my monthly daycare payments," said Guzzo, a mom herself. "And it hasn't gotten better."

Such affordability problems have made it so the college educated typically postpone having kids until their 30s, when they feel more financially stable, Guzzo said. But it's those without a college degree who don't have a foothold in the labor market that may never transition to parenthood or have as many kids as they want, she added.

Guzzo said that in some ways, having kids is sort of about optimism: Committing to a minimum of 18 years — "really more like 25" — signals a sense of security about the future, a feeling that you can afford to give their children a good life.