The US CDC
released a statement saying that "The broad-based decline in births and fertility rates from 2007 through 2009 is now well-documented...The provisional count of births in the United States for 2010 (12-month period ending December 2010) was 4,007,000. This count was 3 percent less than the number of births in 2009 (4,131,019) and 7 percent less than the all-time high of 4,316,233 births in 2007." This decline is small relative to historical changes in US fertility like the "baby boom".
Here is their chart:
An interesting conclusion reached in a
related CDC analysis is that "birth rates declined for mothers under age 40 but rose for mothers aged 40 and over" and that "fertility rates for Hispanic women fell more than for any other population group". This result supports the concept of immigrant fertility convergence.
