There are 150,000 fewer children living in New York City than on the eve of the pandemic—a nearly 9% drop. The five boroughs lost 3.5x as many kids in the four years after 2020 as they did in the previous ten. 🧵 ... Fertility is having a moment—but it's not what's driving the decline. Between 2020 and 2024 the 5 boroughs had more births than children aging out of childhood—a net gain of 17,000 from natural change alone. The real mechanism is migration.

The @BLS_gov Consumer Expenditure Report has tracked household budgets since 1984. How is the median household doing today vs then? In short: incomes are $16k higher, and food and clothing are cheaper. But the avg household is spending $5k more on #housing. (1/10) The rise in incomes has been the main tailwind for household finances. In 1984 the median household (middle quintile) earned just under $45k (2021 dollars). In 2021, the median household earned almost $61k. (2/10)