Weekly Fiscal Facts are provided by the Wisconsin Policy Forum, the state’s leading resource for nonpartisan state and local government research and civic education. The Wisconsin Public Policy Forum logo can be downloaded here.
Declining births may worsen Wisconsin’s worker shortage
Declining birth and fertility rates are especially important in Wisconsin given the state’s recent history of net out-migration. Since the mid-2000s, Wisconsin has lost more residents to migration than it has gained.
Together, these trends could add to the state’s future labor challenges. The most recent state projections suggest Wisconsin’s working-age population (20-64) will decline by 0.2% between 2010 and 2040, while the retirement-age population will nearly double. But these estimates may be too optimistic, since they assume the state will net nearly 300,000 residents through migration and that annual births will rise.
This information is a service of the Wisconsin Policy Forum, the state’s leading resource for nonpartisan state and local government research and civic education.
