By Illinois Radio Network/Cole Lauterbach
SPRINGFIELD – As Illinois takes steps to ensure its citizens are being counted in the upcoming Census, another population issue that state officials cannot control is the declining birth rate in Illinois.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released a report that showed the national birth rate has reached its lowest point in thirty-two years.
“The provisional number of births for the United States in 2018 was 3,788,235, down 2 percent from 2017 and the lowest number of births in 32 years. The general fertility rate was 59.0 births per 1,000 women aged 15–44, down 2% from 2017 and another record low for the United States,” according to the report.
Wirepoints founder Mark Glennon said the decline in Illinois, which has had five consecutive years of population losses, was even worse.
“It’s not just a matter of people moving out, which gets all of the attention,” he said. “It’s also a matter of people not moving in and we are worse than the national average on internal growth, the number of births per person.”
Fewer babies being born, Glennon said, typically follows a poor economy because families are often hesitant to commit to that cost. Illinois was 12th in the nation in babies born per capita in 2001. In 2018, the state fell to 30th.
Gov. J.B. Pritzker announced $29 million in state spending to help ensure minorities and rural Illinois residents are counted. Local towns are also investing in ways to ensure they’re counting every head not only to ensure proper service levels but to ensure some don’t slip below 25,000 people, Illinois’ statutory threshold for home-rule status, which gives them broad taxing and borrowing abilities.
