Birth rates fell across the US during the recession, by about 20 percent. But they plunged by 33 percent among Hispanic women. The birth rate for Hispanic women has been declining more rapidly than the rate for white women for some time, as immigrants become more like natives. The data for births in 2012, just out, show that the fertility rate -- births per 1,000 women aged 15 to 44 -- is now 58.7 for white women and 74.4 for Hispanic women. Since immigration from Latin America has slowed to a trickle, the rate at which the US is getting more Hispanic is slowing drastically. Instead the US is now getting more Asian; Asian immigration is up, and the fertility rate for Asian women rose slightly last year, to 62.2.
The birth rate for teenagers is the lowest ever measured in the US, as is the birth rate for women aged 20-24; the rates for women in the 30s and 40s continue to rise slowly.
If you want a number to worry about, the percentage of births to single women is now 40.7. This breaks down as 29.4 percent for white women, 72.2 percent for black women and 53.5 percent for Hispanics.
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