Rate among Latino women plunges
The recession not only has slowed down consumer spending, but baby making as well. A new study also ties the record low U.S. birth rate to fewer immigrant women having kids, due in part to the economy.
The Pew Research Center's D'Vera Cohn admits however, that may not be the case in Texas though.
"The states that were hit hardest by the economic recession and states that had a worse economic recession were more likely to have big drops in births and birth rates than states that did better during the economic recession," Cohn tells KTRH News.
Cohn's study found the annual number of births per 1,000 women ages 15 to 44 dropped 8% in the U.S. from 2007 to 2010 to 64 births per 1,000.
Immigrant women, both legal and illegal, still have a higher birthrate than the U.S. population as a whole. Yet the rate for foreign-born women dropped 14% between 2007 and 2010, compared with a 6% decline for U.S.-born women.
The birthrate plunged 19% for immigrants of Hispanic origin during that period; among Mexicans, the largest group among Hispanics, the rate plunged 23%.
"We didn't ask people specifically why are you having babies or not having babies," she says. "But we know that in both this recession and past economic declines the number of babies being born did go down."
Cohn says if the trends hold true, we could expect a baby boom once the economy is fully recovered.
