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Wendy Manning

@wendymanning.bsky.social

I am a family demographer (aka population scientist) with a focus on American family and fertility patterns. Co-PI of NCHAT and co-director of NCFMR.

32 Posts529 Follower 309 Folgt

Karen Benjamin Guzzo @karenguzzo.bsky.social · 2d ago

If you're attending #ASA2026 in NYC later this week/next week, please join us bright & early on Monday for a session on pronatalism.

Desired Childbearing Amidst Rising Pronatalism: What Role for Sociology?
Mon, August 10, 8:00 to 9:30am, Sheraton, Floor: Third Floor, New York Ballroom West
Description
In the media and public at large, there is considerable concern about the appearance of a lower fertility rate in the United States, and around the world. These declines have given rise to a pronatalist politics that seek to shape Americans’ childbearing decisions. At the same time, there is evidence that Americans would like to have more children than they are currently having. Sociologists might be concerned about both of these trends under a Reproductive Justice (RJ) framework, which includes the right to not have children as well as to have children, along with resources and support necessary to do so. What is the role of sociology in this debate? What might allow all people to have and parent the children they want? To date, it is not clear that interventions like direct payment, tax credits, or parental leave policies are allowing people to fulfill their fertility desires. What’s more, some interventions might be coercive and/or perpetuate rather than ameliorate inequities related to gender, race, and class. This session will include discussion of policy interventions as well as broader sociological theory on topics such as changing family structures, gendered labor, romance and courtship, medically assisted reproduction, social movements, immigration, race and eugenics, and climate change. This panel discussion invites critical stances on questions of decreased fertility rates and changing population dynamics.

Presider: Eliza Brown
Panelists: Sarah K. Cowan, Karen Benjamin Guzzo, Holly Hummer, Kate Tierney, Patrice Wright
Organizers: Eliza Brown, Nick Mark

Jenn Dowd @drjenndowd.bsky.social · 3w ago

Love this timeline where we are fact-checking government claims about teenage sperm count… But glad that @alisongemmill.bsky.social & @srhayford.bsky.social answered the call! www.factcheck.org/2026/07/rfk-... #demography #fertility #publichealth

RFK Jr.’s Flawed Claims About Sperm Count and Fertility - FactCheck.org

Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has baselessly tied alleged declines in sperm counts among teenagers to a “fertility crisis” or an “explosion in infertility.”

factcheck.org

Wendy Manning @wendymanning.bsky.social · last mo.

Inside the new political screening that’s stalling NIH grants www.nature.com/articles/d41...

Inside the new political screening that’s stalling NIH grants

Mandatory reviews by top health officials and checks for 235 disfavoured terms have left hundreds of vetted grant applications in administrative limbo.

nature.com

SocArXiv @socarxiv.bsky.social · 3mo ago

Did you know the Association of Population Centers working papers series is on SocArXiv? Open to papers from faculty and postdocs at any affiliated pop center. Info: www.popcenters.org/research/ass...

Brian Tyler Cohen @briantylercohen.bsky.social · 5mo ago

Breaking: The Olympic gold-winning U.S. women's hockey team DECLINES Trump's invitation to his State of the Union address after he was caught on video mocking them.

Council on Contemporary Families @ccfamilies.bsky.social · 6mo ago

Call for applications: The @ccfamilies.bsky.social Frank F. Furstenberg Early Career Scholars Program! Are you an early-career scholar researching American families? Are you interested in receiving guidance on promoting your research to the media? Apply now! More info: forms.gle/m1grUGQisRt2...

Karen Benjamin Guzzo @karenguzzo.bsky.social · 6mo ago

Just a few more weeks to get those submissions in for the special issue on pronatalism!

Karen Benjamin Guzzo@karenguzzo.bsky.social · 10mo ago

Very excited to announce that @srhayford.bsky.social, @lesja.bsky.social, and I will be guest-editing a special volume of @prpr-journal.bsky.social on "Contemporary Pronatalism in Demographic Context"! Submissions due March 1, 2026. link.springer.com/collections/...

Contemporary Pronatalism in Demographic Context
Participating journal: Population Research and Policy Review

Call for Papers

Low and declining birth rates across the world have consequences for countries’ population size and structure. Concerns over the potential economic effects of population aging have spurred many countries to engage in efforts to raise birth rates. At the same time, there is growing concern about the social and cultural causes and consequences of low birth rates. Pronatalism – an ideology based on the belief that birth rates are too low, and societies should work to raise them in the interest of economic productivity and cultural preservation – has re-emerged as an increasingly visible and powerful force across different settings. The dynamics of low fertility – such as fertility decline, postponement, and changing patterns of family formation – have been common topics in population science over the last 25 years, but pronatalism has received considerably less attention from the field.

This Special Issue will provide an opportunity for population scientists to contribute to the conversations about pronatalism throughout the world. We welcome critical, theoretical, descriptive, and empirical submissions that explicitly focus on some aspect of pronatalism. Further research is needed on the evidentiary base upon which pronatalism rests; the social, political, and cultural inspirations and implications of pronatalism; and the support for, and effects of, pronatalist policies. Evaluation of alternative approaches (besides raising birth rates) for addressing changes in population size and composition is also warranted. Submissions that discuss the causes and consequences of low fertility but do not directly engage with pronatalism fall outside of the scope of this issue.

Wendy Manning @wendymanning.bsky.social · 6mo ago

Celebrate Valentine Day with facts about marriage. There is state variation. Utah has the highest marriage rate. 💕 @NCFMRBGSU #ValentinesDay tinyurl.com/58966u7m

ICPSR @icpsr.bsky.social · 6mo ago

💘 Calling all data lovers! From pun-filled notes to clever data jokes, you’ll find customizable Valentines at ICPSR for your Love Data Week celebrations. https://myumi.ch/ICPSRLoveDataWeek #LoveData26

Image with text that says, "I only have data for you, Valentine!" and "Love Data Week #LoveData26"

ICPSR @icpsr.bsky.social · 6mo ago

Welcome to the ICPSR Data Fair @ Love Data Week! 🎉Join us & the Data Brunch crew all week for webinars and activities to help answer “Where’s the Data?” Find details & links to register at myumi.ch/ICPSRLoveDataWeek #LoveData26

Announcement for ICPSR Data Fair's Data Brunch Live event on February 9, 2026, from 12:00 to 12:30 p.m. ET with registration link.

Wendy Manning @wendymanning.bsky.social · 6mo ago

I am a big fan of the data viz section of @sociusjournal.bsky.social Proud that this one was ranked in the top 10. journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/... @ncfmr-bgsu.bsky.social osf.io/preprints/so...

Wendy Manning @wendymanning.bsky.social · 6mo ago

Valentine’s Day honors love and romance. The National Center for Family and Marriage Research charts marriage trends. In 2024 there were about 2.4 million marriages and U.S. marriage rates have remained relatively stable since 2010. tinyurl.com/ysa6p4e2 tinyurl.com/3u6x3tfm

Hearts - Photo by freestocks on Unsplash

Yourqueerprof @drcompton.bsky.social · 7mo ago

Did you need a review of LGBTQ+ families? Over 20 years, LGBTQ+ family research in the U.S. has expanded with advocacy, policy debates, and better data tho national datasets still lag. Here is what we know. w/ @chrisajulian.bsky.social

Client Challenge

link.springer.com

Philip N Cohen @philipncohen.com · 9mo ago

New from me: Ideal (family size) compared to what? familyinequality.wordpress.com/2025/11/23/i...

Ideal (family size) compared to what?

It’s not just that the ideal is the wrong thing to measure for this. It’s also that total fertility rate is the wrong thing to compare it to.

familyinequality.wordpress.com

Philip N Cohen @philipncohen.com · 10mo ago

Follow @ncfmr-bgsu.bsky.social for timely, reliable, US demographic trends. Great they're here!

National Center for Family and Marriage Research @ncfmr-bgsu.bsky.social · 10mo ago

💔 The U.S. refined divorce rate in 2024 was 14.2 per 1,000 married women, down slightly from 14.4 in 2023. Nearly a million women divorced nationwide. Read more → doi.org/10.25035/ncf...

National Center for Family and Marriage Research @ncfmr-bgsu.bsky.social · 10mo ago

💔 The U.S. refined divorce rate in 2024 was 14.2 per 1,000 married women, down slightly from 14.4 in 2023. Nearly a million women divorced nationwide. Read more → doi.org/10.25035/ncf...

National Center for Family and Marriage Research @ncfmr-bgsu.bsky.social · 10mo ago

⚭ Marriage in the U.S. varies widely. In 2024, the national refined marriage rate was 31.2 per 1,000 unmarried women. Utah ranked highest (51.7), Delaware lowest (20.1). 📖 Read the new @NCFMR Family Profile → doi.org/10.25035/ncf...

The National Couples' Health and Time Study @nchatstudy.bsky.social · 11mo ago

Happy Sunday! Check out this recent NCHAT publication from @chrisajulian.bsky.social, Hannah Tessler, @wendymanning.bsky.social, Alexandra VanBergen, and @clairekampdush.bsky.social. read.dukeupress.edu/demography/a...

Half of the Picture: A Research Note on Measuring the Sexual Identity Composition of Couples | Demography | Duke University Press

read.dukeupress.edu

Wendy Manning @wendymanning.bsky.social · 12mo ago

Divorce rate decline continues… we have been documenting these trends alongside marriage. @ncfmr-bgsu.bsky.social www.bgsu.edu/ncfmr/resour...

Wendy Manning @wendymanning.bsky.social · 12mo ago

Check out our new paper using @nchatstudy.bsky.social dyadic data to measure sexual minority couples. The levels are twice as high when you consider the sexual identity of BOTH members of the couple. @chrisajulian.bsky.social read.dukeupress.edu/demography/a...

Half of the Picture: A Research Note on Measuring the Sexual Identity Composition of Couples | Demography | Duke University Press

read.dukeupress.edu

Wendy Manning @wendymanning.bsky.social · last yr.

Three out of five recent newlyweds cohabited prior to marriage. www.bgsu.edu/ncfmr/resour... @ncfmr-bgsu.bsky.social

Conrad Hackett @conradhackett.bsky.social · last yr.

About 1 in 4 U.S. adults worry they or someone close to them could be deported www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/...

About 1 in 4 U.S. adults worry they or someone close to them could be deported

About four-in-ten immigrants (43%) say they worry a lot or some, up from 33% in March.

pewresearch.org

Karen Benjamin Guzzo @karenguzzo.bsky.social · last yr.

Another new paper on fertility intentions! Using @nchatstudy.bsky.social data, we consider whether cohabiting & married people's short-term fertility intentions are subjective perceptions of well-being. The answer? Yes! 1/ link.springer.com/chapter/10.1...

As fertility rates in the U.S. and elsewhere continue to fall, standard demographic theories that focus on objective micro- and macroeconomic conditions seem unable to explain these trends. New approaches, such as the Narrative of the Future framework and the “uncertainty” paradigm, have emphasized the potential for subjective perceptions to be important for fertility decision-making, net of objective characteristics. We use a unique new source of data—the National Couples’ Health and Time Study, a nationally representative sample of cohabiting and married adults interviewed between September 2020 and April 2021—to examine short-term fertility intentions and better understand if and how including a general subjective evaluation (overall life satisfaction) and domain-specific subjective evaluations (economic stress and relationship satisfaction) are related to fertility intentions. We find that most respondents did not intend to have a child in the next year, though about one in seven respondents were unsure about if/when to have a(nother) child. Net of objective characteristics, overall life satisfaction was positively associated with short-term intentions to have a child, and greater economic stress was linked to uncertainty about short-term intentions. We did not observe a link in multivariable models between relationship satisfaction and intentions. Further, models stratified by parenthood indicated that both objective characteristics and subjective perceptions were more strongly linked to first-birth intentions than higher-parity intentions. Our results add to the growing body of work suggesting that (a) subjective perceptions have modest but significant links to fertility decision-making and (b) uncertainty in decision-making is important to consider.

Wendy Manning @wendymanning.bsky.social · last yr.

4% of marriages each year are now to same-sex marriage! 10 years of love wins! www.bgsu.edu/ncfmr/resour...

Wendy Manning @wendymanning.bsky.social · last yr.

Support for marriage equality persists! www.nytimes.com/2025/06/22/o...

Opinion | Roll Back Legal Same-Sex Marriage? Republicans Are Getting It Wrong.

nytimes.com

Wendy Manning @wendymanning.bsky.social · last yr.

Want to know more about same-sex couples? Check out our work. www.bgsu.edu/content/dam/...

bgsu.edu

Wendy Manning @wendymanning.bsky.social · last yr.

Check out profiles of marriages to same-sex couples. In 2023 there were newly 73,000 marriages to same-sex couples, representing about 4% of all marriages that year. www.bgsu.edu/ncfmr/resour...

LGBTQ+ Population

Resources for Research on Same-Gender Couples and Families Family Profiles FP-25-21 Marriages to Same-sex and Different-sex Couples: 2019, 2021, & 2023 FP-25-20 Geographic

bgsu.edu

Philip N Cohen @philipncohen.com · last yr.

"personal economic pessimism and concerns about having a good relationship in the future are associated with greater importance of avoiding a pregnancy in the short term" (controlling for economic and relationship status, etc) @karenguzzo.bsky.social, Belykh, @wendymanning.bsky.social , & Roza

Perceptions of the Future and Pregnancy Avoidance in the U.S - Population Research and Policy Review

Despite low U.S. fertility rates since the Great Recession, two-child norms remain pervasive, suggesting individuals are unable to achieve their goals. To understand what may be driving the apparent m...

link.springer.com

Karen Benjamin Guzzo @karenguzzo.bsky.social · last yr.

It's also worth noting that when women aged 40 and over have a birth, their partners are usually over 40, too. We don't often talk about delayed parenthood among men, but it's definitely happening. 3/3 www.bgsu.edu/ncfmr/resour...

Figure showing the distribution of paternal age of births to women who had a birth aged 40 and older.

Aaron Sojourner @aaronsojourner.org · last yr.

EXTREMELY BAD NEWS for economic research, per former BLS Commissioner @ericagroshen.bsky.social on LinkedIn. BLS is suspending access to its restricted data "for the forseeable future." Applies to projects through the Federal Statistical Research Data Centers & onsite projects with BLS. #EconSky