Recession lowers birth rate in US
Source: Agencies |
August 29, 2010, Sunday
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Print Edition
Print Edition
THE birth rate in the United States has fallen to its lowest level in at least a century as many people apparently decided they couldn't afford more mouths to feed.
The birth rate has dropped for the second year in a row since the recession began in 2007. Births fell 2.6 percent last year even as the population grew, according to figures released by the National Center for Health Statistics.
"It's a good-sized decline for one year. Every month is showing a decline from the year before," said Stephanie Ventura, who oversaw the report.
The birth rate, which takes into account changes in the population, fell to 13.5 births for every 1,000 people last year. That's down from 14.3 in 2007 and 30 in 1909, when it was common for people to have large families.
The situation is a striking turnabout from 2007, when more babies were born in the United States than any other year in US history. The recession began that fall, dragging down stocks, jobs and births.
"When the economy is bad and people are uncomfortable about their financial future, they tend to postpone having children. We saw that in the Great Depression in the 1930s and we're seeing that in the Great Recession today," said Andrew Cherlin, a sociology professor at Johns Hopkins University.
"It could take a few years to turn this around," he added.
The birth rate dipped below 20 per 1,000 people in 1932 and did not rise above that level until the early 1940s.
The Great Recession "is definitely a deterrent" to people having children, said Dr Michael Cabbad, chief of maternal health at the Brooklyn Hospital Center, where births fell from about 2,800 in 2008 to about 2,500 last year.
But in Britain the population took its biggest jump in almost half a century last year and the fertility rate is at its highest level since 1973. France's birth rate has also been rising and Germany's birth rate is lower but rising as well.
The birth rate has dropped for the second year in a row since the recession began in 2007. Births fell 2.6 percent last year even as the population grew, according to figures released by the National Center for Health Statistics.
"It's a good-sized decline for one year. Every month is showing a decline from the year before," said Stephanie Ventura, who oversaw the report.
The birth rate, which takes into account changes in the population, fell to 13.5 births for every 1,000 people last year. That's down from 14.3 in 2007 and 30 in 1909, when it was common for people to have large families.
The situation is a striking turnabout from 2007, when more babies were born in the United States than any other year in US history. The recession began that fall, dragging down stocks, jobs and births.
"When the economy is bad and people are uncomfortable about their financial future, they tend to postpone having children. We saw that in the Great Depression in the 1930s and we're seeing that in the Great Recession today," said Andrew Cherlin, a sociology professor at Johns Hopkins University.
"It could take a few years to turn this around," he added.
The birth rate dipped below 20 per 1,000 people in 1932 and did not rise above that level until the early 1940s.
The Great Recession "is definitely a deterrent" to people having children, said Dr Michael Cabbad, chief of maternal health at the Brooklyn Hospital Center, where births fell from about 2,800 in 2008 to about 2,500 last year.
But in Britain the population took its biggest jump in almost half a century last year and the fertility rate is at its highest level since 1973. France's birth rate has also been rising and Germany's birth rate is lower but rising as well.
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