The current long-term decline in the fertility of U.S. women has bottomed out. Fertility rates have actually risen since 1986 for several reasons. 40 percent of women aged eighteen to forty-four years in 1990 versus 32 percent in 1976. Second, more of these women are giving birth, having delayed childbearing in their twenties. A third factor is high birth rates among persons moving to the United States.
Babies are back.
But it wouldn't be safe to assume that marriage will come back with them. Some families today are choosing cohabitation over marriage. Cohabiting households can look like a family from the outside they contain a man, a woman, and children. But they generally function differently than married couples. Cohabiting couples share the housework more equitably than married couples, but they share child care less.