Our Demographic Future: Why Population Policy Matter to America

• Mark Nowak
• June 1, 1998
• Forum Papers
• Forum Paper
• 0 Comments

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An NPG Forum Paper
by Mark W. Nowak
June 1998

Introduction

Although the United States is gener­ally thought of as a leader in social policy, when it comes to demographic policy the U.S. is well behind much of the rest of the world. In 1993, for example, each of 116 countries – about 60% of all nations – had developed and implemented a population policy of some kind.’ Rather than leave their demographic futures to chance, these countries are following the recommendations developed at numerous international conferences to work actively with international agencies, non-governmental orga­nizations and their own citizens to produce desirable demographic futures. The United States – a signatory to most population documents encouraging the creation of national population policies – is one of the few countries that supports the creation of population policies in principle, but currently is making no effort to develop its own such policy.

Why is this so? The simple answer is that most policymakers in the United States consider explicit demographic decision-making anathema to the democratic process. it is not up to the government to tell people how many children they can have,” reason these legislators. “Childbearing is a deeply personal matter that should be left entirely to the indi­viduals involved.”

The irony here is that by refusing to engage in demo­graphic decision making, policymakers do not escape the task of selling demographic policy – they merely give up the opportunity to set explicit policy. Policymakers still make implicit demographic decisions everyday – some with enor­mous consequences – the majority of which occur without the slightest demographic scrutiny.

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