Where did all the babies go? US birth rate lowest in 80 years.

In a troubling sign of the times, the US birth rate has dropped to levels not seen since the Great Depression.

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Forget the Dow and the GDP. Here's the latest economic indicator: The U.S. birth rate has fallen to its lowest level in at least a century as many people apparently decided they couldn't afford more mouths to feed.

The birth rate, which takes into account changes in the population, fell to 13.5 births for every 1,000 people last year. That's down from 14.3 in 2007 and way down from 30 in 1909, when it was common for people to have big families.

Last spring's report, on births in 2008, showed an overall drop but a surprising rise in births to women over 40, who may have felt they were running out of time to have children and didn't want to delay despite the bad economy. Women who postpone having children because of careers also may find they have trouble conceiving, said Mark Mather of the Population Reference Bureau, a Washington-based demographic research group. "For some of those women, they're going to find themselves in their mid-40s where it's going to be hard to have the number of children they want," he said.

How important is family? If it is the most important thing, as most of us will say. Then why do so many choose to have only a single child (or two) when we say that we get so much out of it. If shoes were the most important thing to a person, would they not have several pairs. What about video games, TVs, or reading??…. for those who find these things so important, do we not have many? If we find children so important, then why do we find so many excuses not to have more children?

(ORIGINAL LINK) Recession may have pushed US birth rate to new low