Immigrants helping the US keep its population size steady despite falling birth rates, CDC report reveals
The Donald Trump administration in the US has been vocal about immigration from the very first day. In its pursuit of ‘Make America Great Again’, the Republican leadership has not just made immigration rules tougher but even decided to build a wall along the country’s southern border to prevent illegal immigrants from entering the country.
However, even as America’s politically motivated groups continue to debate the effects of immigration, a new report from the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) has revealed that the birth rates in the US have continued to drop in 2018 -- making it the fourth consecutive year in a row. Yet, the overall population in the country hasn’t reduced because of the immigrants.
Data showed that the US registered 3,791,712 births last year which is 59.1 births for every 1,000 women aged between 15 and 44. In the case of Mexican women, the birth rate went down by three percent while for the women from Puerto Rico and Central and South America, it went up by a percent.
Women waiting longer to have children
The CDC report also hinted at the fact that the women were waiting longer to bear children. Two years ago, the average age of women having their first child was 26.9 years. That went up to 26.8 years in 2018. "The increase in the mean age in 2018 reflects, in part, the decline in first births to females in their teens and 20s, and the rise in first births to women in their 30s and early 40s," it said.
The Pew Research Center came out with a report in August this year saying out of all the recorded births by immigrant women last year, half were to those of Hispanic origin. Births to black women, on the other hand, were 11 percent of the year’s total (from seven percent in 2000) while those to Asian women went up from 19 percent in 2000 to 24 percent in 2018.
'Immigration allowed US population to increase at a healthy rate'
Kevin Doody of the Texas-based Center for Assisted Reproduction told the New Scientist in May 2018 about the immigrants helping the US to maintain its population: "Immigration has allowed the population to increase at a healthy rate. Without that, the population would shrink, and more of the population would be older—which we see in places like Japan." The East Asian nation’s population might drop below 100 million by 2049 as one in every three people there likely to be elderly by 2036.
By 2030, one in every five Americans will be old enough to retire and by 2060, the median age of the US population is likely to be 43, which is five more than the current figure of 38.
The US is the third-most populous country (331 million) in the world after China and India, although the respective populations of both those countries have crossed the billion mark.