In 2002, there were 4,019,280 births in the United States, down slightly from 2001 (4,025,933).Posted on 07/09/2003 5:36:49 PM PDT by ex-snook
U.S. Birth Rate Reaches Record Low
Births to Teens Continue 12-Year Decline; Cesarean Deliveries Reach All-Time High
The U.S. birth rate fell to the lowest level since national data have been available, reports the latest Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) birth statistics released today by HHS Secretary Tommy G. Thompson. Secretary Thompson also noted that the rate of teen births fell to a new record low, continuing a decline that began in 1991.
The birth rate was 13.9 per 1,000 persons in 2002, a decline of 1 percent from the rate of 14.1 per 1,000 in 2001 and down 17 percent from the recent peak in 1990 (16.7 per 1,000), according to a new CDC report, “Births: Preliminary Data for 2002.” The current low birth rate primarily reflects the smaller proportion of women of childbearing age in the U.S. population, as baby boomers age and Americans are living longer.
There has also been a recent downturn in the birth rate for women in the peak childbearing ages. Birth rates for women in their 20s and early 30s were generally down while births to older mothers (35-44) were still on the rise. Rates were stable for women over 45.
Birth rates among teenagers were down in 2002, continuing a decline that began in 1991. The birth rate fell to 43 births per 1,000 females 15-19 years of age in 2002, a 5-percent decline from 2001 and a 28-percent decline from 1990. The decline in the birth rate for younger teens, 15-17 years of age, is even more substantial, dropping 38 percent from 1990 to 2002 compared with a drop of 18 percent for teens 18-19 years.
“The reduction in teen pregnancy has clearly been one of the most important public health success stories of the past decade,” Secretary Thompson said. “The fact that this decline in teen births is continuing represents a significant accomplishment.”
More than one fourth of all children born in 2002 were delivered by cesarean; the total cesarean delivery rate of 26.1 percent was the highest level ever reported in the United States. The number of cesarean births to women with no previous cesarean birth jumped 7 percent and the rate of vaginal births after previous cesarean delivery dropped 23 percent. The cesarean delivery rate declined during the late 1980s through the mid-1990s but has been on the rise since 1996.
Among other significant findings:
In 2002, there were 4,019,280 births in the United States, down slightly from 2001 (4,025,933).
The percent of low birthweight babies (infants born weighing less than 2,500 grams) increased to 7.8 percent, up from 7.7 percent in 2001 and the highest level in more than 30 years. In addition, the percent of preterm births (infants born at less than 37 weeks of gestation) increased slightly over 2001, from 11.9 percent to 12 percent.
More than one-third of all births were to unmarried women. The birth rate for unmarried women was down slightly in 2002 to 43.6 per 1,000 unmarried women, reflecting the growing number of unmarried women in the population
Access to prenatal care continued a slow and steady 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.
Data on births are based on information reported on birth certificates filed in State vital statistics offices and reported to CDC through the National Vital Statistics System. The report is available on CDC’s National Center for Health Statistics Web site.
I could not be more serious.
And if you don't see the truth of what I said, you are missing the most important realization of your life.
Have you ever driven from one end of this country to the other?
Funny, but immigrants fleeing a crowded Europe and surplus Americans fleeing the crowded East Coast of America, settled what is now the continental United States from coast to coast within a lifespan--using horses and steam locomotives to move themselves there.
Things were already so crowded in the nineteenth century that pioneers were willing to risk being killed by indians or wildlife to find a place to settle.
All the best places, mostly along the coastline, were already taken.
You think it's gotten roomier since?
You think you have to suffer under pollution controls and regulations, under recycling, under countless laws that in effect say now it's your turn, then stop, now it's their turn--because we have so much room?
You can just go out in the woods and shoot as many game animals as you'd like?
If America has so much available space, why is real estate so expensive?
And why is the country becoming more and more liberal?
Because the more people you pack into a place, the more government YOU NEED to build and maintain an increasingly complex and unsustainable infrastructure--and the more taxes to pay for it.
Where do you find liberal thinking--in the citiy or in the country?
OMG, what could be more obvious!
And as for a nice place to live, you can keep your deserts and landlocked Montana.
The finest real estate is where the forest meets the sea--and it's crawling with people and regulations and sewage and oil slicks.
Have fun.
And P.S. You would be amazed at how fast the vast open space you're thinking of will fill up.
You stick one house per family every square mile, and your vast area will experience a sea change.
Fences, roads, pollution, laws, taxes, rationing.
And that's only one house per square mile.
That just for starters.
Exactly. The courts have destroyed fatherhood.
Well...this is the woman's fault. Maybe they should have discussed having children before saying "I DO". Too many women think that they'll be able to change men's minds. HINT: You can't change a man's mind -- especially when it comes to children.
Give yourself more credit. It's amazing what you can do when you put your mind to it. Kids are wealth and joy and hope.
There are some positive things out of this. This means that the welfare state will fall and we will crack down on immigration.
It's way past time for America to become lean again.
Thank you XRP for pointing this out. No rational male gets married given the utterly corrupt court system.
The evil shysters are ending marriage as an option for women when they destroyed male civil liberties and due process in their stench-filled courts.
You need a lesson in reading comprehension.
nice catch
Unfortunately, having kids isn't a guarantee that they will be there for you in your dotage, either. I think it ups your odds, but by no means assures there will be someone to visit.
My parent's neighbor was a lovely old lady whose was like a grandmother to me while I was growing up. One of her kids (the good one) was a military wife whose husband was stationed in Spain, and the bad one lived about an hour east.
When she got senile the Spain woman refused to come home and the hour-away man put her in a nursing home and pretty much threw away the key. My parents were devastated - they had looked after her while she got frailer and had treated her better than her kids ever did.
As for myself, I'm planning on cash set aside, good friends, and a Smith & Wesson for when it gets really bad ;)
LQ
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