U.S. birth rate dropped to record low

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WASHINGTON, Nov. 30 (UPI) -- The U.S. birth rate is at a record low, largely because immigrant women are having fewer children, a report from the Pew Research Center shows.

In 2011, the U.S. birth rate dropped to 63.2 per 1,000 women ages 15 to 44, the prime childbearing years , the Pew Research Center reported.

The birth rate for U.S.-born women decreased by 6 percent from 2007 to 2010, but the birth rate for foreign-born women fell by 14 percent in the same time period.

Experts say the recession has played a big part in the drop, CNN reported.

"If you apply the common sense lens here, when it comes to decisions about when to have children, how many and how to space them, the economy clearly matters," said Bill Albert, spokesman for the National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy.

Despite the birth rate decline, foreign-born mothers give birth to 23 percent of the nation's newborns, the Pew Research Center said.

"What we see with immigrants coming into this country is, they tend to reflect birth rates in their own country," said Robert Walker, president of the Population Institute in Washington.