【中美创新时报2024 年 7 月 27 日编译讯】（记者温友平编译）JD Vance 最近再次发表的贬损副总统卡玛拉·哈里斯没有亲生子女的言论，凸显了美国家庭动态的变化：无子女的美国人数量庞大且不断增长。对此，《波士顿环球报》记者史考蒂·尼克森（Scooty Nickerson）作了下述报道。
根据 Globe 对美国人口普查局收入和计划参与调查数据的分析，2023 年，估计有 38% 的美国成年人没有亲生子女，全国约有 1.01 亿人没有亲生子女。其中约有 4600 万是女性。
在 2021 年福克斯新闻的一段剪辑中，俄亥俄州共和党和共和党副总统候选人将哈里斯和其他民主党高层称为“对自己的生活和所做选择感到痛苦的无子女猫女”。
尽管万斯特别提到了“猫女”，但调查数据显示，无子女的美国成年人中男性的比例要高得多。《波士顿环球报》的分析发现，2023 年，近 43% 的成年男性（约 5500 万人）没有自己的亲生子女，而成年女性只有 34.3%。
在马萨诸塞州，44.5% 的成年人（约 250 万人）没有孩子。在拥有足够数据的州中，马萨诸塞州的比例位居第二。
几个摇摆州的无子女成年人比例也高于平均水平。在内华达州，无子女成年人的比例高达 48.2%。在威斯康星州，这一比例为 41.5%，密歇根州为 38.8%。
该分析仅包括 18 岁及以上成年人的数据，不包括像哈里斯这样有非亲生子女的人。
万斯在福克斯的露面并不是他唯一一次对无子女的美国人进行讽刺。 2021 年，他在大学间研究所的一次演讲中还建议，有孩子的美国人应该比无子女的美国人拥有更多的投票权。
此外，俄亥俄州立大学人口研究所所长莎拉·海福德表示，自 2008 年大衰退以来，没有亲生子女的美国人的比例一直在稳步上升。
“每个人都预计大衰退期间出生率会下降，之后会恢复。 但事实并非如此，”海福德说。 “对于最大的驱动因素，没有一个解释。”
专家指出，无子女人数增加的原因有很多，从教育水平的提高到儿童保育和住房成本的攀升，再到对节育的限制增加，尤其是在南部各州。
皮尤研究中心周四发布的一项研究发现，50 岁及以上的成年人表示，他们不生孩子的首要原因是“根本就没有机会”，而大多数 50 岁以下的受访者表示，他们“只是不想生孩子”。
题图：7 月 17 日，俄亥俄州共和党参议员、共和党副总统候选人 JD Vance 的照片。Vance 对卡玛拉·哈里斯没有亲生子女发表了贬损言论。AL DRAGO/彭博社
附原英文报道：
Those ‘childless’ women JD Vance speaks of? There are 46 million of them.
By Scooty Nickerson Globe Staff,Updated July 27, 2024
Senator JD Vance, a Republican from Ohio and Republican vice-presidential nominee, pictured on July 17. Vance made disparaging comments about Kamala Harris not having biological children.AL DRAGO/BLOOMBERG
Recently resurfaced comments by JD Vance disparaging Vice President Kamala Harris for not having biological children have highlighted how American family dynamics are changing: There is a large and growing constituency of childless Americans.
In 2023, an estimated 38 percent of American adults did not have biological children, or roughly 101 million people nationwide, according to a Globe analysis of data from the US Census Bureau’s Survey of Income and Program Participation. About 46 million of them are women.
In a 2021 Fox News clip, the Ohio Republican and Republican nominee for vice president referred to Harris and other top Democrats as “childless cat ladies who are miserable at their own lives and the choices that they’ve made.”
Despite Vance’s specific calling out of “cat ladies,” a much higher share of childless American adults are men, the survey data show. Nearly 43 percent of adult men — roughly 55 million people — did not have their own biological children in 2023, compared with just 34.3 percent of adult women, the Globe’s analysis found.
In Massachusetts, 44.5 percent of all adults, or around 2.5 million people, were childless. Among states with sufficient data, Massachusetts had the second highest share.
Several swing states also had above-average shares of childless adults. In Nevada, the share of childless adults was a striking 48.2 percent. In Wisconsin, it was 41.5 percent, and in Michigan, it was 38.8 percent.
The analysis only includes data for adults ages 18 and up, and does not account for people like Harris who have nonbiological children they parent.
Vance’s Fox appearance isn’t the only time he threw barbs at childless Americans. He also separately suggested that Americans with children should be given more voting power than childless ones in a speech at the Intercollegiate Studies Institute back in 2021.
Furthermore, the share of Americans without biological children has climbed steadily ever since the Great Recession in 2008, according to Sarah Hayford, director of the Institute for Population Research at Ohio State University.
“Everyone expected birth rates to decline during the Great Recession, and recover after. But it didn’t,” Hayford said. “There’s not one explanation of what’s the biggest driver.”
Experts point to a variety of factors in explaining rise in childlessness, from rising educational attainment to climbing costs of child care and housing to increased restrictions on birth control, particularly in Southern states.
A Pew Research Center study released Thursday found that adults age 50 and older said the number one reason they didn’t have kids was that “it just didn’t happen,” while a majority of those younger than 50 said they “just don’t want to have kids.”
