Maybe we need to play more Marvin Gaye.
New York’s birth rate is declining and is now the fourth lowest among the nation’s 10 largest metro areas, according to 2016 census estimates.
New Yorkers in the metro region that includes the city, Westchester, Rockland, Nassau and northern New Jersey, made babies at a rate of 12.28 births per 1,000 people.
That is well below top-ranked Houston, which had 15.08 births per 1,000 people, records show. It’s also below the national average of 12.31.
The highest birth rates are generally in the South and West. Dallas-Fort Worth had the second highest birth rate (13.96); followed by Washington D.C. (13.19), and Atlanta (12.74).
New York — with 20.2 million people — has seen its birth rate decline for at least the past three years, down from 12.54 births per 1,000 people in 2014.
At least we’re not Boston.
The chaste New England hamlet was at the bottom of the 10 largest metro areas, with 10.84 births per 1,000 people. Miami-Fort Lauderdale had the second lowest birth rate (11.31), followed by Philadelphia (11.75), records show.