The U.S. fertility rate in 2024 of 1,626.5 births per 1,000 women is below replacement, the level at which a given generation can exactly replace itself, 2,100 births per 1,000 women, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

When technology executive Logan Maley returned to the office after her first child in 2018, she had an ideal setup: She worked four days a week in a private office with a mini fridge and blackout blinds so she could pump milk at her desk, but her heart still broke being away from her infant daughter.

Then came the COVID-19 pandemic. She could have breakfast and lunch with her daughter and put her down for naps. She stopped missing so many firsts. And Maley said she was not just more fully present at home, she was more productive and focused at work.

No longer torn between being professionals and parents, she and her husband decided the time was right to have a second child. “We were both at home and we thought we might as well while the world is falling apart,” Maley said.

Researchers heard that sentiment so often, they decided to study it. They say their findings suggest a “positive relationship” between the recent trend in remote and hybrid work schedules and having kids.

Since the baby boom ended in the early 1960s, Americans have had fewer and fewer babies. In 2024, the birth rate fell to an all-time low, with American women having on average 1.6 babies each, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Center for Health Statistics.

But the United States had an additional 80,000 births between 2021 and 2025 when the pandemic shut down offices and ushered in a new age of remote and hybrid work schedules, according to a new study from researchers at Stanford University and other institutions, which analyzed data from 19,000 workers in 38 countries.

Couples who work from home, even just one day a week, are more likely to conceive and more likely to plan to have children in the future than those who commute to the office five days a week, the study found. Even when only one person works from home, the couple was still more likely to have a child.

“Flexibility about when, where and how to work – or the absence of such flexibility – is one potentially important factor in fertility decisions,” the study said.

'You can't get pregnant by email'

Giving people more flexibility and freedom during the pandemic made having a family possible for couples, said Stanford University economics professor Nick Bloom, who co-authored the “Work from Home and Fertility” study.

No more long commutes and the rush to make it home for dinner. Parents were on hand for the school pickups and soccer matches. They had more time to tuck kids into bed and catch up on their own sleep, maybe even exercise.

Not only did remote work schedules make it easier to look after kids, they made it easier to conceive them, Bloom said. After all, “you can’t get pregnant by email,” he said.

Even though she’s not planning on growing her family, remote work is now non-negotiable for Maley. With her second child, there were no pump parts to wash and no stress over storing milk or remembering to bring it home after a work day. She nursed her son under a cover during Zoom calls.

“I would certainly be a lot less likely to have more kids if I had to go into the office,” she said.

The new study raises important questions about the role flexible work arrangements could play in helping fertility rates rebound, Bloom said.

It is also not the first to suggest a link between working from home and having children. A National Bureau of Economic Research study of the 2021 baby bump concluded that improving child care and allowing parents more flexibility to work from home “might be associated with higher future fertility.”

A 2023 study surveying 3,000 American women from economist Adam Ozimek and demographer Lyman Stone found that women working remotely were more likely to want to say they planned to have a baby, especially if they are more educated, affluent and older. About 15-20% of women working remotely were trying to become pregnant, compared to just 10-14% of employed women without remote work options. Remote workers in the survey were also more likely to marry.

“We believe this evidence is suggestive that the ‘return to the office’ may contribute to falling birth rates, and that governments interested in supporting marriage and implementing pro-natal policies may be interested in considering how flexible work arrangements can be supported and encouraged,” Ozimek and Stone wrote.

Did return to office lower the fertility rate?

As women wait longer to have children or put off having them at all, research shows that many office workers – especially women – say flexible working schedules allow them to better balance work and caregiving responsibilities. A FlexJobs survey found that 80% of women ranked flexibility as the top benefit of a job.

“I’m one of the only millennial people I know IRL who have had a baby,” one person commented on Reddit. “It’s no coincidence my partner and I have both been working from home since 2020 now.”

“The fact I know I'll be able to work from home makes me feel way better about having kids in the future,” commented another.

Yet the study comes amid a broad crackdown on flexible work arrangements.

President Donald Trump ordered federal employees back to the office full-time. A growing number of corporations are following suit including Amazon and JPMorgan Chase.

Remote workers during the pandemic “didn’t work as hard,” according to Blackstone CEO Steve Schwarzman. Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg said “people who work from home are not efficient.” Former Trump adviser and Tesla CEO Elon Musk called working from home “morally wrong.”

Bloom said remote work’s bad rap conflicts with the Trump White House encouraging Americans to have more children.

As the United States and other developed countries struggle with declines in fertility rates, concerns are rising over aging populations, raising the specter of shrinking labor markets and economic stagnation.

In October, Trump announced a plan aimed at expanding access to in vitro fertilization and his administration has floated ideas including scholarships for married people and parents, a one-time $5,000 cash "baby bonus" for mothers.

“The odd thing is the current Trump-Vance administration is trying to end work from home despite pushing for higher birth rates,” Bloom said. “I would think any government wanting more American babies would embrace work from home. You can’t force couples to have kids, but it sure helps if you make it a lot easier, and working from home does that in spades.”

So far pro-natalist government policies haven’t moved the needle much. Countries like Sweden, Norway and Finland offer paid parental leave and subsidized childcare but the birth rate remains low. Hungary offers a number of incentives, including exempting women with four or more children from paying income tax, but is still struggling to coax people to have kids.

What's really behind the baby bust

The reasons Americans choose not to have children are hotly debated in academic circles, with many attributing America’s baby bust to shifting priorities and societal norms.

When asked, couples cite many reasons. More are delaying marriage and kids, shortening the window to conceive. They also blame the surging costs of child care, fertility treatments, housing and health care.

Some say they no longer see children as necessary to leading meaningful lives and instead want more time for their careers or leisure pursuits. And recent research suggests men’s unequal participation in child care and household responsibilities is another factor in lower birth rates.

Not everyone is convinced that remote and hybrid work schedules are a significant factor in the decision to have a family. Some economists say it could just be that the people who want to have children are the ones who choose to work from home.

“It’s not implausible that increases in working from home could have an impact on the birth rate. One of the problems that we do face and likely can contribute to changes in fertility is the difficulties of managing your career and your personal life,” Wellesley economics professor Phillip Levine said. “Given the evidence that is available today, it’s hard to say that it has a major influence.”

Most American workers have greater flexibility today than they did before the pandemic. More than half of them had hybrid roles in 2025 with 28% working fully remote, up from 18% five years earlier, according to Gallup data. But the birth rate is still falling, Levine said.

Even if flexible work arrangements don’t increase the fertility rate, they still have value because they can be a boon for families, he said. Some 45% of working Americans between the ages of 25 and 54 have a child 17 or under at home, making working parents a critical part of the labor force.

“Every positive intervention doesn’t have to solve all of society’s problems,” Levine said.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Could remote work fix America's baby bust? Some researchers think so

Reporting by Jessica Guynn, USA TODAY / USA TODAY

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