Birth Patterns | Fastest Largest Birth Change

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America's Demographics -- Birth Patterns

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For the U.S. overall, births decreased in the three successive years 2007 to 2009, following a set of long-term continuous annual increases in the number of U.S. births. The provisional count of births through June 2010 indicates a continued decline. Do these decreases in the number of annual births reflect an aberration or a longer-term trend? What will be the impact by state? Region and metro? How might these changing patterns affect you?

Fertility rates (birth rates for women aged 15–44) fell more rapidly from 2007 through 2009 than for any 2-year period in more than 30 years. From 2007 through 2009, the fertility rate fell 4 percent from 69.5 to 66.7 births per 1,000 women aged 15–44. Birth rates declined for mothers under age 40 but rose for mothers aged 40 and over.

A combination of factors accounts for this change. While the economic downturn may play some role, other factors at work may be more dominant including the size of the childbearing cohort and childbearing propensity for some age groups in some areas.

See related data:
• 2009 births by state by race/ethnicity: http://proximityone.com/birthpatterns2.htm.
• Births in context of trends and related measures at http://proximityone.com/srdmi/us00.htm.
• State & county birth patterns.

Births Component of Population Change
An important component of population change, births are used in our models to estimate/project total population of an area. Births are reflected in the basic population identity/equation:
P(t) = P(t-1) + B(t,t-1) - D(t,t-1) + M(t,t-1)
where P population, B Births, D deaths, M Migration, t is the year/point in time.
See more information about ProximityOne estimates & projections.

Examine Births Characteristics & Patterns using the Ranking Table
Use the interactive ranking table provided below to view/rank/compare state birth patterns since 2000. For example, click column header %Chg00-09 (births, percent change 2000 to 2009) twice in the ranking table below to view states ranked on this item in descending order.

Births by State Since 2000
Interactive ranking table -- click column header to sort; click again to sort other direction.
Drag column separator to change column width
See related Ranking Tables Main Page
Column headers ...
Births00 .. births 2000
Births06 .. births 2006
Births07 .. births 2007
Births08 .. births 2008
Births09 .. births 2009
Chg00-09 .. births, change 2000-2009
%Chg00-09 .. births, percent change 2000-2009
Chg08-09 .. births, change 2008 to 2009
%Chg08-09 .. births, percent change 2008 to 2009

Data Sources
Data in the above table are based on data from the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS).
... 2008 data from this report, Table 10.
... 2009 data from this report, Table 6 (12/2010).
... other data from earlier reports.

Additional Information
Proximity develops geodemographic-economic data and analytical tools and helps organizations knit together and use diverse data in a decision-making and analytical framework. We develop custom demographic/economic estimates and projections, develop geographic and geocoded address files, and assist with impact and geospatial analyses. Wide-ranging organizations use our tools (software, data, methodologies) to analyze their own data integrated with other data. Contact Proximity (888-364-7656) with questions about data covered in this section or to discuss custom estimates, projections or analyses for your areas of interest.