US birth rate falls to record low, led by the decline in child-bearing among foreign-born women, according to the The Pew Research Center. The 2011 rate was the lowest since 1920, when such records began.
The study concludes it could be due to several factors. Increased access to contraception for Latino women and the recession 14% among foreign-born women and 23% among Mexican immigrant women in particular.
Among this report’s other major findings:
- A majority of births to U.S.-born women (66%) in 2010 were to white mothers (although that share was smaller than in 1990, when it was 72%), while the majority of births to foreign-born women (56%) were to Hispanic mothers.
- Teen mothers account for a higher share of births to U.S.-born women (11% in 2010) than to foreign-born women (5%), in part because of the age profile of immigrants.
- Mothers ages 35 and older account for a higher share of births to immigrants (21% in 2010) than to the U.S. born (13%). In fact, immigrants accounted for fully 33% of births to women ages 35 and older in 2010.
Last year there were 3.95 million total US births, according to the preliminary data from Pew Research Center.
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