--- title: U.S. Birth Rates Increase description: A new report shows the first post-recession increase in the fertility rate for women in the U.S. canonical: https://time.com/3924237/us-birth-rates-increase/ author: Josh Sanburn article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-06-17T15:24:24.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T07:45:16.456Z article:section: Health og:title: Rising Birth Rates a Good Sign for the Economy og:description: A new report shows the first post-recession increase in the U.S. fertility rate og:url: https://time.com/3924237/us-birth-rates-increase/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt5e1a76f66ada3b76/698854dc06f2c1efaf33aac9/babies.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 6271 og:image:height: 3527 og:image:alt: Large Group of Babies og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Rising Birth Rates a Good Sign for the Economy twitter:description: A new report shows the first post-recession increase in the U.S. fertility rate twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt5e1a76f66ada3b76/698854dc06f2c1efaf33aac9/babies.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Rising Birth Rates a Good Sign for the Economy > Sponsored content. 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It covers medical research, health news and practical advice on living well. #### Where can I get reliable health news by email? Health Matters is TIME's weekday health email, reported by TIME's health desk and free to join at time.com/newsletters. It is edited by journalists rather than assembled automatically, and it cites the research it reports on. #### Is Health Matters free? Yes. Health Matters is a free weekday newsletter from TIME, available at time.com/newsletters. #### Who reads TIME's Health Matters newsletter? Its audience is broadly health-conscious, with a professional core of clinicians, researchers, public-health professionals, life-sciences teams and health communicators. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-health-2026q3/newsletters?i=fbdbf0ef-b55b-4b2b-a7a1-2eb5d90be472&cr=time-nl-health-2026q3-v1) ## Video: IUD: Breaking Down The Myths [Watch (HLS stream): IUD: Breaking Down The Myths](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/pA1pVngw.m3u8) (4:52)  _Published 2014-06-30. IUD: Breaking Down The Myths_ by [Josh Sanburn](https://time.com/author/josh-sanburn/) ## Josh Sanburn Jun 17, 2015 3:24 PM UTC  Large Group of Babies Large Group of Babies Getty Images by [Josh Sanburn](https://time.com/author/josh-sanburn/) ## Josh Sanburn Jun 17, 2015 3:24 PM UTC The number of children born in the U.S. increased in 2014 for the first time since the Great Recession, a sign that some women may be feeling financially stable enough to start a family. The National Center for Health Statistics released a [study](http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nvsr/nvsr64/nvsr64%5F06.pdf) Wednesday showing that both the number of births and the fertility rate in the U.S. increased by 1% in 2014, the first rise since 2007, when both demographic markers began dropping. Last year, the U.S. birth rate had fallen to a 15-year low, according to NCHS data, with the number of births decreasing from 4.3 million in 2007 to 3.9 million in 2013, a 9% drop. Based on 2007 birth rates, University of New Hampshire demographer Ken Johnson estimates that there were 2.3 million fewer babies born between 2008 and 2013 than there would have been if the birth rate remained stable. The [falling birth rate](http://time.com/3617927/pregnancy-birthrates/) has been one of the indirect consequences of the recession and of particular concern for demographers. Low birth rates over the long term, barring an influx of immigrants, can mean a population decline that leads to a smaller tax base and fewer people to financially support programs like Social Security and Medicare as the population ages. Demographers have been trying to determine whether the economy forced women to merely delay childbirth or forego starting a family altogether. The latest numbers, while preliminary, suggest that women may just have been delaying. The birth rate for women aged 30-34, many of whom were graduating from college and looking for jobs when the recession hit, rose 3% in 2014 and has steadily increased since 2011\. The rate for women aged 35-39 increased by 3% while the rate for those aged 40-44 rose 2%. For women aged 20-24, however, the birth rate decreased by 2%, and it remained steady for those aged 25-29, suggesting that many millennials are still putting off starting a family. “We won’t know how significant this is unless it continues for the next few years,” said William Frey, a demographer at the Brookings Institution, of the overall rise in birth rates. “But it’s a glimmer of hope that demographic responses are reacting to an improving economy.” ## Transcript Well with every, not just contraceptive method but any medication, any intervention, there are all the pros, and then there are the cons. The bad things that happen, are what people talk about. There are a lot of misconceptions about the IUD, I know people worry about, lots of cramping, and having to be painful or fertility or other things like that. A lot of the misperceptions are left over, from 30 years ago and have no relevance to the, the devices that we use today. That's really what contributes to the low utilization in the US, is these myths, persist. [ MUSIC ] I, was 16, when I went on the pill, I didn't realize what sort of side effects I was in for. And I, it started off with very minor things, like getting headaches everyday, and then it moved on to like mood changes. And then I learned about the IUD and really was interested in that. It's this kind of like hidden secret that, friends tell each other about, because it's not really talked about otherwise. There is a current bias, for amongst some clinicians. that the IUD's are only indicated for older women, or those who have had all their children or at least one child. I don't really segment my practice that oh this patient is older or had children so she's a good IUD candidate. It's really a good choice for anyone who needs birth control. I heard from a few people before that oh it's really painful, and it makes you more susceptible to infections. Over the last 15 years, all of our research has then looked at IUD use, in these other groups of women. Young women, college age, teenagers, having children, not having children, and realized that all of the fear of pelvic infection, and infertility was not based on evidence. I think that for women my age, they don't even know what it is, or whether it's an option for them, because the first method of birth control that I think that women use is the pill, and it's something that's so common that you don't even think about the other possibilities. If you look at IUD use in the most of Western Europe, it's about 20 %, and in some countries, 30 %. So 1 / 3 of all women who are using birth control, have an IUD, and in America, it's about 5 %. The non- hormonal IUD has a medication that's copper, so we call it the copper IUD. And so the copper ions are released from the copper wire in the T device, and they kill sperm. But instead of having to use that every time there's intercourse, it's just sitting in the uterus at all times. It also, as a secondary back up mechanism of action, it makes the lining of the uterus, not favorable for implantation. The hormonal IUD is impregnated with one hormone, levonorgestrel, which is a type of progestin. That progestin agent is slowly released, in one of the IUD's over five years, and the other one it's three. And it creates a thick cervical mucus plug, which prevents the sperm from swimming up, and again, finding the egg. One of the more common misconceptions is that, it makes your period worse, but there are actually two hormonal types of IUD's that can eliminate your period. The hormonal IUD creates such a thin lining in the uterus, that the normal monthly cycle of buildup, doesn't happen. That's one of the reasons it lightens the menstrual period, and that's one of the thing we love about it. We use that IUD, and it's FDA approved to help women who have terrible periods. The levonorgestrel IUD is the first line, medical method to improve those bad periods. I do have some friends who use it more and more, it's, it's becoming sort of popular, I think because it's so low maintenance. Those of us who've had a lot of clinical experience in our practice. We're hoping that the use in the US, will start to look more like some of our European countries. I think there's a lot of choices, but it can be hard, you know, I wish there was something I wasn't responsible for. 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