The nation's birthrate dipped to a historic low in 2013, marking six years of decline as more women are putting off having children until they are older, The Los Angeles Times reported, citing a new report from the National Center for Health Statistics, a part of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Since hitting a high in 2007, the birthrate has fallen off about 10 percent. While the birthrate dipped for teens and fell 3 percent for women 20-24, it rose 2 percent for those 35-39,
the Times noted of the survey, derived from birth certificate information at the National Vital Statistics System.
Perhaps more eye-opening in the latest data — births for moms over 44 rose 14 percent when compared with 2012, the Times said.
Demographically, the birth rate for both Latino and white women dropped by one percent or less and remained the same for African-Americans. Twin births — 1 in 30 — also remained unchanged, the Times said.
The nation's preterm birthrate, by turn, has shown improvement, according to data from the March of Dimes, which found it fell for the seventh consecutive year,
The Huffington Post reported.
"This is the lowest rate we've had in 17 years," the organization's chief medical officer, Dr. Edward McCabe, told the Post.
While the latest numbers were encouraging, the nation has room to improve, March of Dimes President Dr. Jennifer Howse told the Post in a statement.
"The U.S. still has one of the highest rates of preterm birth of any high-resource country, and we must work to change that."
There was at least one significant downside to the nation's latest fertility data,
according to The Wall Street Journal, which said the "baby bust" now threatens economic growth.
"Lower fertility means less growth in the U.S. population, barring an increase in immigration, which is only slowly picking up. That means fewer workers to propel the economy and a smaller tax base to finance benefits for the elderly," the Journal wrote.
"The trend also promises to weigh on consumer spending, which fuels two-thirds of economic activity; if fewer women have children, there’s less buying of diapers, school supplies and homes to accommodate growing families."
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