Birthrates

From a record low of 14.0 in 1975, the U. S. birthrate (measured in number of live births per 1,000 women between the ages of 15 and 44) showed a marked increase through 1990 when it reached a high of 16.7. Since 1990, the birthrate experienced a significant decline, falling to 15.2 in 1994, 14.4 in 1998, and down to 14.2 in 2008. At the end of the 20th century, the U. S. birthrate accounted for only 64 percent of the country’s population growth. Fluctuations in birthrates are generally attributed to the age cohort known as the BABY boomers (those born between 1945 and 1964), the legalization of abortion, the wider acceptance of various forms of BIRTH control, and the changing status of women in American society since the late 1960s.

The relative decline in the birthrate over the last three decades of the 20th century was largely a result of the aging of the baby boomers. By 1990 most “boomer” women had passed beyond their childbearing years. The spike in the birthrate between 1985 and 1990, when it increased from 15.7 to 16.7, likely reflected the wish of many “boomer” women to have children later in life in order to pursue careers. This, along with the desire to have fewer children, clearly affected the overall trend in the birthrate between 1970 and 2008 and reflected the changing status of women in American society. The existence of a greater emphasis on women’s rights, along with a larger population of women produced by the baby boom, was largely responsible for the increase in the birthrate for unmarried women from 29.4 in 1980 to 47.5 in 2005. The impact of the baby boom generation on the declining birthrate is more fully understood when considering that there are an estimated 37 million foreign-born people in the United States as of 2006, and foreign-born women statistically, on average, have more children than native-born women.

The legalization of abortion in 1973 and the increased acceptance and introduction of new forms of birth control have greatly influenced the drop in the birthrate for women between the ages of 15 and 19. Overall, the teenage birthrate dropped from 62.1 in 1991 to 52.3 in 1997 and to 42.9 in 2002. The decline for younger teens, 15 to 17 years of age, fell even more substantially, dropping to 23.2, a decline of 38 percent since 1990, compared to a drop of 18 percent for teens 18-19 in that same period. The birthrates for African Americans (66.2, down from 90.8 in

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1997) and Hispanic Americans (82.9, down from 97.4 in 1997) in 2002 also showed significant declines. However, the number of births to unmarried women continued to rise. In 2005 the birthrate for unmarried women aged 1544 years was 47.5 per 1,000, and constituted 36.9 percent of all births in the United States, reflecting the growing number of unmarried mothers in the population. Access to prenatal care continued to increase. In 2002, 83.8 percent of women began receiving prenatal care in the first trimester of pregnancy, up from 83.4 percent in 2001 and 75.8 percent in 1990.

Moreover, the death rate is also declining—a process that, coupled with the declining birthrate, is aging the U. S. population. At the end of the 20th century, demographic forces presented new political and social challenges for the nation.

See also Age Discrimination Act of 1975; family life; feminism; IMMIGRATION; POPULATION TRENDS; pro-life and pro-choice movements; sexual REVOLUTION; women’s rights and status.

Further reading: National Center for Health Statistics. Fast Stats A to Z. Available online. URL: Http://www. cdc. gov/ nchs/FASTATS/default. htm. Accessed January 13, 2009.

—William L. Glankler and Stephen E. Randoll