Would you want to have children to take care of you and your spouse in old age?
Posted on 08/15/2009 12:22:51 AM PDT by myknowledge
ATLANTA - THERE aren't just fewer jobs in the US recession. There are fewer babies, too.
US births fell in 2008, the first full year of the recession, marking the first annual decline in births since the start of the decade and ending an American baby boomlet.
The downturn in the US economy best explains the drop in maternity, some experts believe. The Great Depression and subsequent recessions all were accompanied by a decline in births, said Carol Hogue, an Emory University professor of maternal and child health and epidemiology.
And the numbers have never rebounded until the economy pulled out of it, she said, calling the 2008 recession the most likely culprit for fewer babies.
It's not clear that it's the only explanation, however. Another expert noted a recent decline in immigration to the US may also be a factor.
America recorded about 4,247,000 births last year, down about 68,000 from 2007, according to a new report from the National Center for Health Statistics.
This recession began in December 2007, and since then the economy has lost almost 7 million jobs. Housing foreclosures worsened in 2007 too, and fell into a state of crisis in 2008.
The largest decline in births were in California and Florida, two states hit hardest by the housing crisis.
'I wasn't surprised,' Prof Hogue said, of the new numbers, which are not final and will be updated.
But the downturn's effect on the public psychology - and families' willingness to have babies - may not have really hit until the fall of 2008, said Stephanie Ventura of the health statistics centre, the agency that put out the report. -- AP
Would you want to have children to take care of you and your spouse in old age?
I’ve read some anecdotal evidence that this is due to many illegals going home due to the recession. 68,000 births isn’t all that many in context.
doesn’t surprise me in the slightest
What happened to the forecasted Obama baby boom???
One more promise on which he has not delivered.
Oh, that's coming. Wait till the baby names start coming out in a couple of months.
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