More babies were born in the U.S. in 2007 than in any other year in our nation’s history, according to the National Center for Health Statistics, part of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and a wedding band made increasingly little difference in the matter, reports the Chicago Tribune.
Up from nearly 4.3 million in 2006, there were 4,317, 119 births reported in 2007, which tops a record set in 1957 at the height of the Baby Boom. The good news is that the U.S. population is more than replacing itself. On the downside, not only was the teen birthrate up for the second year in a row, but also births to unwed moms reached an all-time high of about 40 percent of the total, continuing a trend that began several years ago.
U.S. fertility rates were higher in every racial group and highest among Hispanic women.
Roughly one-fourth of the nation’s kindergartners are Hispanic, accelerating a trend that will see minority children become the majority by 2023, seven years earlier than estimates made in 2004, reports Associated Press. In 2007, more than 40 percent of all students in K-12 were minorities, double the percentage of three decades ago.
