Birth And Divorce Rates Decline In A Sour Economy

Birth And Divorce Rates Decline In A Sour Economy : Shots - Health News Blog : NPR: Falling stocks are a big reason birth rates and divorces are falling too. For every thousand people in the United States, there were 13.5 live births in 2009, says a report just out from the nation's keeper of vital statistics. That's down from 13.9 in 2008, and 14.3 in the boomlet of 2007, just before the recession officially began. Not only is that the lowest birth rate in a century, it's the second year in a row that birth rates have gone down.

As for divorce, the rate was 3.4 percent last year, according to the report — slightly less than in 2008 and in 2007. Divorce rates have been declining for fifteen to twenty years.