Recession Causing Birth Rate To Drop

The U.S. birth rate has dropped for the second year in a row, and experts think the recession led many people to put off having children. The 2009 birth rate also set a record: lowest in a century. Births fell 2.7 percent last year even as the population grew. Back in 2007 more babies were being born in the US than any other year in US history. But ever since the recession began stocks, jobs, and births began to fall. "When the economy is bad and people are uncomfortable about their financial future, they tend to postpone having children." said Andrew Cherlin, a sociology professor at Johns Hopkins University.

Another possible reason why the birth rates dropped is the decline in immigration to the United states. The new U.S. report is a rough count of births from states. It estimates there were 4,136,000 births in 2009, down from 4,251,095 in 2008 and more than 4.3 million in 2007. Last spring's report, on births in 2008, showed an overall drop but a surprising rise in births to women over 40, who may have felt they were running out of time to have children and didn't want to delay despite the bad economy. Women postponing having children because of careers also may find they have trouble conceiving, said Mark Mather of the Population Reference Bureau.

This is related to biology because the recession is causing the United States birth rates to drop. Which means our population is dropping. Also if women are postponing having babies, as they get older it would be harder for them to conceive. It is also important because many women want to have children but if they keep delaying it will get harder and harder. And soon enough they may not even have children. Women should just stop waiting, they shouldn't allow the recession to control when they can have children.

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