California had 14,570 fewer births in 2008 than in the previous year, a 2.6 percent drop that surprised demographers with its size. It was the first annual decline in births since 2001, when the state was last mired in a recession. While the economy is one likely cause, the migration of young Latinas in their prime childbearing years out of California, and a slowdown of illegal immigration, are ongoing factors that could cut into the state’s future population growth if they continue.
“In the kind of economy we have, it’s possible that people are opting not to have children that they might otherwise have,” said Melanie Martindale, senior demographer with the state Department of Finance.
But the 3.2 percent decline in births to Hispanic mothers from 2007 to 2008 — the largest one-year decline in at least two decades — “is very significant, and very, very large,” said Martindale, who produces the state’s annual population estimates for racial and ethnic groups. “That seems to be because a lot of working-age and childbearing-age Hispanics are moving out of state to take jobs elsewhere, coupled with the fact that the border crossings” into the U.S. from Mexico “have declined.”