Recession is the reason of the lowest U.S. birth rate

The recession may be the reason why the U.S. birth rate declined for the second consecutive year in 2009 and was the lowest in a century, according to experts.

There were 4.136 million births in 2009, 2.7 percent less than the 4,251,095 births in 2008. There were more than 4.3 million births in 2007, more than any other year in the history of the nation, The Associated Press.

Data released Friday by the National Center for Health Statistics also showed that the birth rate in 2009 was 13.5 births per 1,000 people, compared to 14.3 in 2007. The health statistics center is part of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The fall of 2009 births is "a drop of good size for a year. Every month we present a decrease from the previous year," said Stephanie Ventura, a demographer who oversaw the report, told the AP.

"There is probably a relationship between the decline in births and the economic downturn," says the CDC. "More details on the demographics of the mothers who gave birth in 2009 are necessary to more forcefully in this regard."

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