Michigan Medical, Social Service, & School Workers Fret Birth Rate Decline

The number of live births continues to collapse in Michigan and this augers ill for the ever expanding class of individuals who service children and their parents.  Hospital birthing facilities are already being closed across the state, especially in rural areas. Next up will be pediatric facilities and schools.  This will significantly reduce employment in medicine and social services across the state:

https://www.themidwesterner.news/2025/11/economists-school-officials-politicians-sweat-michigans-totally-unprecedented-birth-rate-decline/

Economists, school officials, politicians sweat Michigan’s ‘totally unprecedented’ birth rate decline
State's schools, employment, and social services will be negatively impacted
By Victor Skinner | November 22, 2025

School officials, economists, politicians, and others in West Michigan are sweating a “totally unprecedented” decline in births they believe will soon impact schools, employment, and social services.

In Michigan, the overall birth rate has declined from a high of 25.1 live births per 1,000 residents in 1950 to 9.9 in 2023, translating into a decline of roughly 100,000 births in raw numbers, according to state and federal data.

The 2023 birth rate equated to 99,178 live births, a 3.2% decline from the year prior and the first time in more than 80 years the state produced less than 100,000 babies.

In Kalamazoo County, births have nosedived from about 3,200 in 2013 to just over 2,500 a decade later, while the figure in Calhoun County went from about 1,700 to roughly 1,300, WWMT reports.

Brian Asquith, economist with the W.E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research in Kalamazoo, told the news site the decline in Michigan is part of a broader trend globally.

“This is totally unprecedented,” Asquith said.

Comstock Public Schools Superintendent Jeff Thoenes told WWMT the district has avoided enrollment declines by modernizing facilities to draw in students, but there’s trouble brewing on the horizon.

“We are finding there are fewer younger children enrolling in schools in our programming,” he said. “In fact last year was the first year we’ve seen a decrease in what we call our early learning program.”

Rob Ridgeway, superintendent for Harper Creek Community Schools, noted the declining birth rates will eventually take a toll on employment, with cascading problems for the community.

“It’s definitely something that you have to think about. The birth rates, because there’s less kids,” he said. “The implications right away is staffing. You have to have your staff match your student population, because 80% of our budget or so is people.”

The problem is driven by a variety of factors, from an aging population, to women waiting later in life to have children, to increased abortions and other factors, and the situation isn’t expected to change any time soon.

“Births have declined by about 30 percent since 2000 and are projected to continue declining,” according to the Michigan Center for Data and Analytics. “The five- to 17-year-old population is projected to decline by another 280,000 children (18 percent) by 2050.”

MCDA data shows births peaked in Michigan at more than 150,000 in 1990, and are expected to decline to less than 80,000 by 2050.

The decline coincides with sky high abortion numbers during Whitmer’s tenure.

More than 31,000 pregnancies canceled by abortion providers in Michigan in 2023 marked a record high for the last three decades, though where the increasing trend goes from there is a mystery.

The 2023 Reproductive Health Act approved by Democrats and Gov. Gretchen Whitmer ensures the detailed annual report on Michigan abortions released last year by the Department of Health and Human Services will be the last.

Increased access to abortions and the declining birth rate are contributing factors to Michigan’s ranking of 49th among states for population growth since 2020.

Ironically, the same year Democrats expanded abortion access in 2023, Whitmer launched a Michigan Growth Office, kicking off what former Chief Growth Officer Hilary Doe described as “the most ambition population growth effort in the state’s history.”

The effort involved assembling a Growing Michigan Together Council, which produced a report in December 2023 documenting how Michigan “has fallen to 49th in population growth” among states, with Michiganders “lagging in median income, educational outcomes, and attainment and have fallen behind faster-growing peer states in key measures of infrastructure, community well-being, and jo opportunities.”

“We are losing more young residents than we’re attracting, and our population is aging faster than those of our neighbors,” the report read.

In the nearly two years since, the Growth Office has launched pilots and other programs in an effort to grow Michigan’s population, including a fellowship in Detroit and a housing and relocation program in Flint for college graduates, according to the Detroit Free Press.

Michigan’s population was growing by 0.3% when Doe began work, with a statewide population of 10,083,356 in July 2023. A year later, Michigan’s population stood at 10,140,459, up 0.6%, suggesting population growth accelerated by about three tenths of a percentage point under Doe.

Last month, Doe announced she’s bailing after only two years to start her own nonprofit, a decision that came just two weeks after lawmakers cut funding for Whitmer’s Michigan Growth Office.

Doe’s nonprofit, the Michigan Institute for Growth and Opportunity, will partner with state and local officials to provide policy, research and other guidance to “ensure that this work has long-term partnerships and really that it continues beyond any one administration, which has always been the goal from the first day.”

Whitmer, meanwhile, is working against her own goal of growing Michigan’s population.

On Tuesday, she celebrated the distribution of 460,000 free contraceptives to all 83 Michigan counties through 440 partner sites, WILX reports.

The resources included 60,000 doses of emergency contraception, 60,000 doses of oral contraceptives, 340,000 condoms, and 7,300 pregnancy tests.

“By putting essential reproductive care in reach, we’ve empowered thousands of Michiganders to take control of their future and access critical support for themselves and their families,” the governor said in a statement.

Congressman Bill Huizenga, R-Zeeland, told WWMT that if the trend in Michigan and elsewhere continues, that will eventually impact employment, and government services like Social Security.

“We will have fewer earners paying into the social security system, and this is not like some big savings account that is out there for the social security,” he said. “It’s funded through the paychecks of those currently working.”

Huizenga noted, however, that Republicans in Congress are taking action to incentivize more Americans to have children.

In “the One Big Beautiful Bill (signed into law by President Donald Trump in July), there was actually a baby bonus that was put in place,” he said.

According to the White House:

• The One Big Beautiful Bill permits Trump Accounts to be established for American children who have not reached age 18.
• An American child born after December 31, 2024 and before January 1, 2029 for whom a Trump Account is established will receive an initial $1,000 deposit from the government, with the potential for parents to contribute up to an additional $5,000 per year initially.
• Employers may make an annual contribution of up to $2,500 to a Trump Account and that contribution will not impact the employee’s taxable income.
• CEA estimates that, under a scenario of average returns on the U.S. stock market, Trump Account balance for a baby born in 2026 will be:
• $303,800 by age 18 and $1,091,900 by age 28 if maximum contributions are made.
• $5,800 by age 18 and $18,100 by age 28 if no contributions are made.