2007 U.S. BIRTHS BREAK BABY BOOM RECORD

More babies were born in the United States in 2007 than in any other year in American history, according to preliminary data reported by the National Center for Health Statistics.

• The 4,317,000 births in 2007 just edged out the figure for 1957, at the height of the baby boom.
• The increase reflected a slight rise in childbearing by women of all ages, including those in their 30s and 40s, and a record share of births to unmarried women.

In contrast with the culturally transforming postwar boom, when a smaller population of women bore an average of three or four children, the recent increase mainly reflects a larger population of women of childbearing age, said Stephanie J. Ventura, chief of reproductive statistics at the center and an author of the new report. Today, the average woman has 2.1 children*.

Racial and ethnic differences remain large: 28 percent of white babies were born to unmarried mothers in 2007, compared with 51 percent of Hispanic babies and 72 percent of black babies.

[*The usual subterfuge: a lengthy report I read disputes the perpetual "2.1 children" birth rate for 'American women', saying that while it's routinely reported that way, immigration, legal and non, contributes from 2 to possibly 4 tenths of that figure. I.e., American women are not reproducing at replacement rate - but good luck getting the MSM to elaborate on that statistic.]

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