The Census Bureau has released new U.S. population projections that assume a markedly lower level of growth than the agency predicted in the previous projections in 2008. Most of the reduced growth is due to lower projected immigration, but the bureau also forecast lower birth rates than it previously assumed.
A new Pew Research Center report concludes that the decline in birth rates and number of births from 2007 to 2010 was led by immigrant women. Overall birth rates declined 8% during this period, but birth rates for immigrant women plunged 14%. Overall numbers of births declined 7% from 2007 to 2010, but births to immigrant mothers fell by 13%. Despite these decreases, foreign-born mothers still account for a disproportionate share of births–23% in 2010, greater than the 17% share of women of childbearing age who are immigrants.
The nation’s racial and ethnic minority groups—especially Hispanics—are growing more rapidly than the non-Hispanic white population, fueled by both immigration and births.
This statistical profile of the foreign-born population is based on Pew Hispanic Center tabulations of the Census Bureau’s 2010 American Community Survey.