Whites: The next minority

A new study suggests that today's white women seem less interested in having children than previous generations. According to the figures analyzed by the University of New Hampshire in a new demographic study, white women increasingly are delaying having children and having smaller families, while growing numbers of Hispanic women are having large families at conventional childbearing ages. As these trends continue, America will likely have a white minority by 2050.

"Census projections suggest America may become a minority-majority country by the middle of the century," said Kenneth Johnson, a sociology professor at New Hampshire. According to the report, whites currently make up two-thirds of the total U.S. population, but the number of white women of prime childbearing age---20-39 years old---is in decline, dropping 19 percent from 1990.

"It looks like 'majority' births would drop below 50 percent around 2012," said Carl Haub, senior demographer for the Population Reference Bureau.

The researchers also discovered that fertility rates were higher among Hispanics, averaging three children per woman, compared to non-Hispanic white women, who average of just under two children each (1.87).

The research should serve as a "wake-up" for denominations, churches, and Christian ministries serving predominantly white communities. If those institutions do not begin to reach Latinos and Hispanics successfully they are headed for significant decline or extinction. On Sunday mornings or Wednesday nights or at your campus ministry, if you look out at the audience and it's predominantly white your are looking at an end of era if these demographic trends hold.

The study also indicates that birth rates among black women have declined as well. Black women are now averaging 2.13 children per woman. The sad truth is that black birth rates have been assaulted by an abortion genocide that the black church has been unaware of until recent years.

The interesting question is why do white women seem less and less interested in having children in America? Based on my anecdotal observations from my travels to Christian colleges and involvement with youth ministries, there does not seem to be any difference in how young Christian women think about children and family than non-Christians of the same age and class. Has the backlash against women's subjugation in the past created a new problem for the future?

Delaying having children and having small families for Christians seems to come into conflict with how many Christians have historically reflected on God's design for marriage as a sex-based institution between a man and woman for the purpose of uniting the couple as "one flesh" and procreation ("be fruitful and multiply"). This may seem like a stretch but the birth rate decline among white women has a simple marital solution if people are willing to make different lifestyle choices.