>>509754560>>509754600Birth rates have been trending downward since the 1960s, and have been in free fall since the 1980s. This isn't a new or "sudden" problem. It's been tracked and planned around since before you were born.
They passed a landmark immigration act in 1965. Why would they do this? The baby boom had just increased the population exponentially, and the population was set to go up even more as those people all had children in the next couple decades. The country was prospering, the economy was surging boundlessly, so why would they pass massive immigration reform in 1965 which MASSIVELY reduced restrictions on immigration?
Because the policy makers at the time saw the trend already emerging. The baby boom started with a massive, huge burst of procreation at the end of WW2 and then gradually burned off over the next 15 years. A general, downward trend. By 1960 the fertility rate had plunged below pre-war levels and showed no signs of stopping. By 1965 it was clear the trend was ACCELERATING fertility decline. They knew they needed to lay the groundwork fast to prevent economic disaster by the start of the 21st century.
So they opened up immigration in 1965, and then in the 1990s the massive flood of third worlders began, as the fertility rate hit its absolute nadir in the late 1980s. It slowly crept back up, but never again hit replacement level. Immigration has just barely kept the US from total fertility collapse since the 1990s but now even the flood of migrants can't stave it off anymore and we're seeing the US slip. The US fertility rate is currently where Japan was 15 years ago, and that is your benchmark for how fast we're falling. We are 15 years behind Japan, who is like 10 years behind China/ Korea / Russia in terms of demographic collapse.