f the full reports confirm the provisional data, the 2010 US fertility rate (64.7 births per thousand women in the 15-44 age band) will have fallen below the recent low of 64.8 hit in 2002 – when we were also in recession. The years 1995-1999, characterized by economic boom, also had fertility rates under 64.7 (64.6, 64.1, 63.6, 64.3, 64.4, respectively).
Here’s a link to my recent guest blog at Mothering in the Middle: The blog for new midlife mothers: Ladies in Waiting.
Today’s Census headline tells us there’s a “delayer boom” underway, as more educated women have children later. This is not a surprise here! … They conclude that women with a college degree or more will end up with around 1.7 kids, as opposed to women with less than a high school degree, with 2.5 kids. But increasing numbers of the later moms are still having kids in the 35-44 range – and in increasing numbers every year (see story on the 2009 data below) — so the 1.7 is not great data. And of course none of this data includes adopted children. Stay tuned!
Pronatalism (basically, promoting more births) serves a variety of purposes, which you may variously like or not – but be on the look out in the coming months for texts that claim to be pushing babies on you for your benefit. There may be other logics at work and groups seeking to benefit as well.
If, when the recession ends, a resurgence in births follows, it could be made all the more strong by the pent up demand of women who’ve delayed. Which could mean an even greater rise in births to women 40+.
March is women’s history month, but this year we’re getting a special kind of history lesson. The anti-woman agenda being ram-rodded through legislatures this term is ancient. At least since Helen of Troy, our leaders have been actively denying women the right to choose how to run their private lives.
a href=”http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-gregory-birthrate-20110109,0,2745694.story”>Here’s a link to my op-ed today in the LA Times.