Why Gen Z Is Choosing Pets Over Children

It is contributing to steeply declining birth rates in the US.

I was walking in a park recently, enjoying the coming Florida spring.

As I walked along the sidewalk, seeing the still-green trees, unaffected by our feeble winter — a young couple walked past me pushing a stroller.

They were smiling and chatting away. As I looked down at the stroller, I saw through the netting and there was a small dog. Its bulging eyes were pushed up against the net, eagerly trying to sniff me.

“So much for kids,” I thought.

It’s a trend you’ll likely see in the coming years. Per a Harris Poll in 2024, 43% of Americans prefer pets over children, with a high percentage of those being young people.

With Gen Z, which is made up of 14–29 year olds, only 40% said they would prioritize starting a family over raising a pet. Granted, many of them are still young, that percentage could still change.

Why Gen Z is avoiding kids

The reasons were many — but the highest cited reasons were that pets are easier to take care of than children, and less of a financial strain.

Per marriage therapist, Rachel Goldberg, “Lifestyle shifts such as Gen Z valuing experiences over possessions doesn’t compute well with having children that would likely hinder their ability to be flexible and pursue new experiences.”

The other underlying reasons

A continuing throughline in these figures is the nature of the economy. Many see inflation, rising costs of living, and weakening job opportunities as huge barriers to parenting.

The other challenge is that the government hasn’t strongly incentivized having a child.

This phenomenon has been investigated in depth in Chinese universities. A study at the Capital University of Economics and Business in Beijing found that in nations where the government helps citizens cover the heavy expenses of raising a child and institutes policies supporting families, birth rates tended to rise. However, these policies were unhelpful once birthrates fell below 1.5. In effect, a country can get trapped in birth rate death spiral. For context, the birthrate in the US is currently 1.6.

Another recurring trend I’ve noticed is that boomer grandparents aren’t nearly as involved as prior grandparents were.

This appears to be supported by some research too, with a study at the University of Amsterdam reporting older cohorts of grandparents had more frequent contact with grandchildren than modern ones. This is explained in part by globalization and people moving further away from home than prior generations.

This level of engagement, of course, varies across culture:

Pew Research

For example, one of my friends moved closer to his parents to get help with their child, and has been sorely disappointed in their involvement, with the grandparents frequently flaking on plans. My other close friend lives 1000 miles away from both his parents and in-laws, giving them little assistance with their boys.

Combine this with seven in ten young people saying that raising a child is too expensive (a 13% jump from the year prior). The average cost of raising a child is $297,674, which is a 25% increase from their survey just two years prior. Much of this cost is driven by increased health insurance premiums, rising daycare cost, limited tax exemptions, rent, and transportation costs.

There’s also the physical toll that childcare can cause.

Young people are seeing this data and these stories play out and it contributes to a broader, more negative narrative about the prospect of raising children. They still value companionship and family, and see getting a dog or cat as a great alternative.

Many of them also witnessed their parents struggle through financial hardship (with the 2008 crash), see headlines about myriad catastrophes, global warming and social atomisation (the increase in isolated and selfish individuals).

Why I get it

Although I’m a millennial, I fall into this same category. I watched my parents struggle mightily raising us. It was all in the painful pursuit of building their careers while raising two children to adulthood with minimal psychological damage.

In the interim, everything I’ve seen has heavily discouraged me from having a child. Yes, I’ve felt the same social pressure to have kids, and thought I would be a parent for most of my life. Yet when I checked in with myself, I realized I always dreaded the prospect — for all the aforementioned reasons.

Don’t misunderstand me: I have immense respect for parents. I’m sure parenthood is an incomparable joy. Or, as a friend put it, “A lot of joy, but not a lot of fun.”

Yet having a child, even when you intend to, can be an enormous effort that catches people off guard. Even when it goes “right”, it can still siphon off desperately needed sleep, free time, and money.

Additionally, social media and more transparency is exposing people to the challenges of raising a child, with countless memes and clips chronicling the (often humorous), experiences of parenting.

And to young people, a dog offers so much value. In the 10–15 years you get with them, they are always excited to see you. They love you unconditionally. They help you meet other people and give you a reason to go outside. They never complain (well, unless you are giving another dog attention instead of them). They’re proven to help you stay in shape and improve your mental health.

Put simply, a golden retriever feels more secure than a 30-year mortgage, daycare, and a career-pause.

I suspect we shouldn’t be surprised with falling birth rates given every metric and observation screams for us to run the other way.

It isn’t so much that young people are opting out of children so much as they are opting out of all the baggage that comes with that child. Instead, they are opting in to the freedom that exists on the other side, even if it costs them something harder to measure.

Perhaps the question shouldn’t be, “Why aren’t young people having children?”

And instead be, “Why hasn’t our culture, society and government made child-rearing a more appealing enterprise?”