Over the past decade, the birthrate among women in their twenties has dropped significantly both in Delaware County and nationwide as education and career moved up on their list of priorities, write Sabrina Tavernise, Claire Cain Miller, Quoctrung Bui, and Robert Gebeloff for The New York Times.

The birthrate is falling fastest in urban counties, where the availability of more jobs is giving women more incentive to wait than in rural counties.

From 1996 to 2007, the birthrate in Delaware County increased by 4 percent compared to the previous decade. But from 2007 to 2019, the birthrate plummeted by 6 percent compared to the previous period. At the same time, the number of women between 15 and 44 in the county slightly dropped from 113,500 to 111,400.

Delaware County recorded the lowest birthrate drop among Philadelphia’s collar counties. Chester County recorded the highest decrease at 13 percent, followed by Bucks County with a 12 percent drop. Montgomery County is third with a drop of 10 percent.

In the past several decades, it was upper-middle-class Americans, especially in big, coastal cities that delayed becoming parents until they were settled in their careers.

In the past decade, as more women of all social classes pursued education and career, American women everywhere delayed childbearing.

Read more about the birthrate in The New York Times.