Continuing a 12-year decline, the U.S. birth rate has dropped to the lowest level since national data have been available, according to statistics just released by the Centers for Disease Control (CDC)…. The birth rate fell to 13.9 per 1,000 persons in 2002, down from 14.1 per 1,000 in 2001 and down a full 17 percent from the recent peak in 1990 (16.7 per 1,000).
My apologies. In last week’s posts, I was using the 14.1 per 1,000 figure. So, the decline from 1970 (18.4) is actually 24.46 percent, not 23.37 percent as I’d previously written.
Of course, this mistake only strengthens my case.