US fertility rate

As golf courses have closed, the US fertility rate has declined, a correlation of 0.978 that suggests either that golf was the last remaining courtship ritual in America or that both metrics are measuring the decline of mid-century institutions that baby boomers built and subsequent generations abandoned. The fairway closes, the nursery empties, and both trends trace the same generational transition from the hobbies and habits of the 1960s to whatever is happening now.

Golf courses declined from about 16,000 to under 14,000 between 2002 and 2022. Fertility rate declined from about 65 to 56 births per 1,000 women. Both are twenty-one-year declines driven by generational change: golf loses players as boomers age out and younger adults prefer other recreation, fertility declines as economics, career priorities, and contraceptive access reduce birth rates. Both are measures of a society moving away from the life patterns of previous generations.

Twenty-one years of fewer golf courses and fewer babies is a correlation between two declining mid-century American institutions: the sport and the large family, both peaking in the boomer era and both declining as subsequent generations choose differently. The club is sold, the stroller is not purchased, and both trends measure the same generational departure from the way things used to be done.