According to research by a demographer from the Carsey Institute at the University of New Hampshire, the Hispanic birth rate has dropped more than ten percent in recent years.
Though people are having children less overall, the greatest decline has been among the Hispanic population.
Kenneth Johnson of the Carsey Institute told the Chicago Sun-Times, ‘Hispanic fertility is dropping like a stone,” pointing to the down economy as the main reason.
Though Hispanics have the highest fertility rates and are responsible for about a quarter of all babies born in the U.S., between 2007 and 2010, the Hispanic birth rate in Illinois alone dropped 15.4 percent, while nationally it dropped 17.6 percent.
Since the beginning of the recession, Hispanics have also been the demographic hit hardest by a loss of wealth, losing 66 percent of their median wealth from 2005 to 2009.
Lack of employment has aided in that decrease, with the Hispanic unemployment rate rising 2 percent between 2007 and 2008. Comparably, during that same period, unemployment rates for blacks rose only 1.8 percent, and only .9 percent for whites.
