{"id":22913,"date":"2021-04-29T00:43:11","date_gmt":"2021-04-29T04:43:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/studentwork.prattsi.org\/infovis\/?p=22913"},"modified":"2021-04-29T00:53:09","modified_gmt":"2021-04-29T04:53:09","slug":"the-declining-birth-rate-shifting-demographics-in-the-united-states","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/studentwork.prattsi.org\/infovis\/visualization\/the-declining-birth-rate-shifting-demographics-in-the-united-states\/","title":{"rendered":"The Declining Birth Rate & Shifting Demographics in the United States"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Source: Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. (LC-USW3- 000578-D<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Introduction<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

According to John P. Rafferty, writing for Britannica<\/em>, “The baby-boom generation was the product of the sudden increase in U.S. births occurring between 1946 and 1964. The increase was largely the result of the renewed confidence and security that followed the economic hardships and uncertainties of the Great Depression and World War II.” Currently members of this generation are 57-75 years old. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today, Millennials, born between 1980-1996, have taken over as the largest generation and are currently 25-40 years old. In stark contrast to the circumstances of our parents’ generation, news articles are claiming that the decline in birth rates is a crisis<\/a>. Anecdotally, I know many millennials are split on whether they want to have children or not given a variety of factors best summarized by AOC: <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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This tweet and article piqued my interest. I was curious to find out more about the shifting demographics in the US and worldwide to get a sense for the scale of this so-called crisis and what it could mean for the future in a post-pandemic world<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n


Inspiration<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

This project was primarily inspired by what I learned from reading Fundamentals of Data Visualization<\/a> by Claus O. Wilke. In the past when I have had to make charts or graphs, I mostly made choices based on personal preference without considering that there are best practices for how basic visualizations should appear. Having a reference for this type of decision making was invaluable as I experimented and reconstructed my perspective. Below are some screenshots from the book that show my general direction for the project. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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