Saturday, March 21, 2009

US births break record; 40 pct out-of-wedlock


US births break record; 40 pct out-of-wedlock

I read this on Yahoo the other day (well, March 18 to be precise).

The graph rather impressively shows that in 2007 we had more births than even in the post World War II decade.

The article states: "On average, a U.S. woman has 2.1 babies in her lifetime. That's the "magic number" required for a population to replace itself."

Of course, I thought of my Harry Dent post because he said the same thing about the 2.1 babies per children. I had it "per family" but it makes more sense "per woman" until men start having more babies anyway. Which leads to an entirely new line of thinking about how the family should follow women given their singular ability. But I'll leave that line to another day.

The article further states that 2007 was probably the 2nd year of a "boomlet" and I suppose if it goes on as long as the other one it grows up into a "boom."

I wonder what the recession does to birth rates? First answer that comes to mind is that it should decline because of uncertain financial means. But I bet it goes up. We humans seem to use most any occasion as a reason to procreate and I suspect recession is just as good as a power blackout. (Thinking that people will be more alone with each other and not going out as much maybe?)

5 comments:

dave said...

In the 30's there were fewer babies and fewer marriages. People could not afford either.

Lori1955 said...

Well I think octomom wingle handedly threw us from a boomlet into a boom this year. The sad part about these statistics is the number born out of wedlock.

~Betsy said...

I thought this statistic was unusual, too. It's expensive to raise a family!

nancy said...

i recently had heard this statistic a week or so ago as well.

i find it concerning in terms of what's happening to the institution of marriage. not good i'm afraid. it makes me realize how conservative my views are and how i'm beginning to feel i'm in becoming the minority.

¸.•*´)ღ¸.•*´Chris said...

I like to read the birth page in the newspaper. I see a trend in the number of births to single mothers. So many more than there ever used to be.

I wonder what the attraction is to having a child and raising it single-handedly. I just don't feel that things that were once looked upon as an important step taken in one's life are viewed with any importance or respect anymore. Marriage? ugh...kids? let's have a few and the state will take care of them. The concept of family and morals are going straight down the toilet.