New in The Conversation from Tim Slack and @smonnat.bsky.social Shannon Monnat: "6 myths about rural America: How conventional wisdom gets it wrong" 1/ theconversation.com/6-myths-abou...

newrepublic.com/article/2040... New by UMd demographer @philipncohen.com in TNR, on the pronatalist panic. Some key lines: "giving in to population panic and endorsing a plan to increase birth rates implicitly supports anti-immigration politics and yields ground to racist fearmongering.” 1/

pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/41277108/ Now available: "From Birth to Death: The Marital Consequences of Child Loss for Unmarried Mothers" Stud Fam Plann 2025 Nov 23. doi:10.1111/sifp.70041. Online ahead of print.

Thread!

Want to know why these encouraging but expected trends occurred? Well you can read the full paper here to find out: onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

Answer #2: When using the Supplemental Poverty Rate, we find that rural child poverty rates have fallen, particularly post 2017. Broadly speaking, this progress on poverty is unexpected since rural kids are increasingly living in nonmarital families, which normally have high risks of poverty.

Answer #1: Rural kids are increasingly NOT living in married parent families. Instead they are increasingly living with cohabiting parents, never married parents, and with no parents (kinship care). This shift away from married families has happened at much faster pace for rural than urban kids.

Ever wonder about what’s it like to grow up in rural America? So did we! @shelleydclark.bsky.social and I tackle two basic—but essential—questions in our new Journal of Marriage and Family article, just out today. Who do rural kids live with today? How likely are rural kids to grow up in poverty?

Looking forward to this!

psu.mediaspace.kaltura.com/media/t/1_np... "The current pro-natalist project is weaponizing an imaginary rural America in ways that harm real rural Americans today." My DeJong Lecture, and the others in the 20th anniversary event, is now available: "How pro-natalist policies harm rural Americans."

psu.mediaspace.kaltura.com/media/t/1_np... "The current pro-natalist project is weaponizing an imaginary rural America in ways that harm real rural Americans today." My DeJong Lecture, and the others in the 20th anniversary event, is now available: "How pro-natalist policies harm rural Americans."

Starting now; join us on Zoom. pop.psu.edu/events/20th-...

ICYMI

Repeated headlines about population collapse got you worried? @amandajean.bsky.social and a team of demographer colleagues (including me) on why you should rest easy in the face of the pronatalist panic.

We are building a new pop center at UofT and will hold our first mini-conference on Nov 6 - come join us!! Exhibit 1: amazing speaker line-up - featuring friends around the world to discuss why demography/pop center matters! 🤓 Exhibit 2: the iconic castle where this conference will take place 🏰 ✨

Tomorrow at 9 am EST I'll be one of the three speakers for the 20th anniversary of the De Jong Lecture at Penn State, discussing “The Underpinnings and Limits of Pronatalism.” Registration to watch on Zoom is available at the link. pop.psu.edu/events/20th-...

This new briefing paper from a larger team of demographer coauthors led by @amandajean.bsky.social complements the @theconversation.com piece three of us wrote last month described in the thread below. sites.utexas.edu/contemporary...

This new briefing paper from a larger team of demographer coauthors led by @amandajean.bsky.social complements the @theconversation.com piece three of us wrote last month described in the thread below. sites.utexas.edu/contemporary...

Feeling alarmed over dire long-term population projections that suggest humanity will disappear? Don't be! Demographers generally aren't worried, and you shouldn't be either. @amandajean.bsky.social explains why in this great @ccfamilies.bsky.social brief. sites.utexas.edu/contemporary...

I found this out because there were these weird off-hand comments in the population projections from the era. I was shocked that they thought fertility rates would remain at or near Depression levels in the 1940s and 1950s. But of course they did! We always think the future will be like the present.

Did you know that in the 1930s and 1940s elites across society were wringing their hands about birthrate decline? Just like today they attributed their low fertility (BELOW REPLACEMENT, SHUDDER SHUDDER) to individualism, urbanization, consumerism, selfishness, etc. This paper discusses it nicely.

Repeated headlines about population collapse got you worried? @amandajean.bsky.social and a team of demographer colleagues (including me) on why you should rest easy in the face of the pronatalist panic.

ICYMI

We are so glad to see this important conversation gaining traction. The fear-mongering around “population collapse” is not only overstated — it’s often rooted in outdated or biased assumptions. 👇 theconversation.com/fears-that-f...

My coauthors @lesja.bsky.social @karenguzzo.bsky.social & I have a new piece in @theconversation.com , which offers insights into why most demographers do NOT think there is a current fertility crisis and the panic about population decline is unwarranted. 1/ theconversation.com/fears-that-f...

My coauthors @lesja.bsky.social @karenguzzo.bsky.social & I have a new piece in @theconversation.com , which offers insights into why most demographers do NOT think there is a current fertility crisis and the panic about population decline is unwarranted. 1/ theconversation.com/fears-that-f...

Now online open access at Perspectives on Sexual and Reproductive Health: my article with Zoe Levy showing that limits on contraception and abortion access in rural America lead more women there to opt for tubal ligation and end up unable to have wanted children later. 1/5 doi.org/10.1111/psrh...

In their Washington Post Op-Ed--"In Rural America, More Women Are Saying 'I Don't'" (wapo.st/42SavfP) --Shelley Clark & @ruraldemography.bsky.social draw from the Demo article "Are Rural Areas Holdouts in the Second Demographic Transition?" @westernu.bsky.social read.dukeupress.edu/demography/a...

About to talk with Michael Medved about the op-ed and research on rural marriage and fertility. michaelmedved.com

#sociology #demography

I'm in the @washingtonpost.com today with my coauthor @ruraldemography.bsky.social Matthew Brooks talking about marriage and childbearing in rural America— and the outdated stereotypes that seem to be informing the new Trump transportation policy. @mcgillumedia.bsky.social wapo.st/42SavfP 1/3

New Trump admin guidelines prioritize transportation spending and infrastructure for “communities with marriage and birth rates higher than the national average,” which many are reading as a shorthand for subsidizing white rural communities. The truth is complicated. tinyurl.com/DOTpolicy2025 1/