Does the Economy Cause a Baby Boom?
Researchers know that besides weather, cultural factors also contribute to the fluctuating birthrate. Birthrates are consistently highest during times of economic boom, and they’re lowest during recessions and depressions, such as the market downturns of 1972, 1982, and 2001. During the Great Depression, birthrates fell by about 26 percent, and the Gulf Coast experienced significant declines after Hurricane Katrina. On the other hand, a record number of babies were born in the United States at the height of the economic boom in 2007. Since the current slowdown set in, the birthrate has been slowing again. Although some rumors of purported baby booms that follow weather events and disasters might be urban legends (like the myth of a baby boom following the 2003 New York City blackout), sometimes freak occurrences can have a measurable effect on births. Colorado experienced an unusually high number of births in September of 2007 that demographers traced back to a powerful blizzard that h
