Digital Life & Fertility Trends
As more of life moves online, what happens to fertility? Explore how different mixes of remote work, screen time, online social life, and in-person interaction could shift projected fertility trends across U.S. states.
This atlas helps users compare how fertility paths shift across states under different assumptions about how people allocate time across digital life, care work, and in-person interaction. Use it to identify which states are most sensitive to each scenario, compare mechanisms, and download scenario outputs.
What can I use this for?
01 State Map
Figure 1: Scenario differences across U.S. states
What do these terms mean?
Reference path: the selected model's baseline projection for fertility if recent trends continue without an added digital-life scenario.
Scenario path: the reference path plus the selected digital-life assumption, such as more remote work, more screen time, or less in-person interaction.
Scenario difference: scenario path minus reference path, measured in births per 1,000 women aged 15–44.
Click any state to update the selected-state view below.
Scenario difference from reference path, births per 1,000 women aged 15–44.
Selected state
Predictive benchmarks
02 Rankings
Where are scenario differences largest?
Rankings are based on scenario differences from the reference path, regardless of the map outcome.
Rankings use scenario differences from the reference path, measured in births per 1,000 women aged 15–44. Very small differences close to zero are treated as no meaningful difference.
03 U.S. State
Figure 2: Reference and scenario paths for selected U.S. state
Loading state explorer
Observed
Reference path
Scenario path
Note: The line chart shows General Fertility Rate levels: live births per 1,000 women aged 15–44.
04 Scenarios
Choose a digital-life scenario
05 Compare
Compare two digital-life scenarios
Scenario comparison helps show whether digital life looks more fertility-supporting when it saves time, or more fertility-reducing when it crowds out in-person interaction.
Scenario comparison = Scenario A difference - Scenario B difference
Differences in scenario differences, births per 1,000 women aged 15–44.
06 Assumptions
Adjust assumptions
Adjust assumptions User-controlled
Why did the scenario move?
Direction relative to the reference path
07 Method
Data and method
The dashboard compares scenario paths with a reference path using state-year data currently loaded in the browser. These are projections under assumptions, not causal estimates.