Babies “R” not us!
New York’s birth rate has plunged since the economy bottomed out, as more and more women postpone having kids because of the recession, experts say.
“Uncertainty is the key word. Because of the economic uncertainty, younger people of childbearing age are delaying children,” said Sam Sturgeon, president of Demographic Intelligence, which released a new report on fertility nationwide.
“The hardest-hit are Hispanics, younger workers and people with lower levels of education,” he said.
Sturgeon’s company, which sells research on birth rates to makers of baby products, foods and medical supplies, estimates nationwide fertility at 1.87 children per woman this year, down from 2.12 in 2007. That number measures the total children a woman is expected to have in her lifetime.
Birth rates in New York state declined from a prerecession recent high of 253,451 in 2007 to 242,914 in 2010, the most recent numbers available.
Some New York women agreed that tough times were a big factor in delaying pregnancy.
“It’s expensive to take care of kids on the whole,” Brooklyn resident Kimeisha Kennedy, 28, said yesterday in Washington Square Park.
“Having a kid while the economy is bad will stop you from doing things parents want to do,” said Kennedy, who has a girl, 9, and sons, 9 months and 7.
“It took me seven years to have another one,” she noted, adding that the economy was the main factor in her decision to delay.
“And we were thinking about having another one after him, but right now, no, because you can’t find the right jobs. It’s hard.”
But others said they weren’t worried about the ongoing slump.
“We think about it, but we don’t let it hold us back,” said Manhattan stay-at-home mom Kelly Robshaw, 40, who has a 5-month-old son and hopes to have a couple more children.
The report said there were 4.3 million babies born in 2007 before the recession. The number fell to 3.9 million in 2011.
The United States ranked 121st worldwide, with 2.06 children per woman, according to the CIA’s World Factbook.