MICHIGAN BIRTHS AT THEIR LOWEST POINT SINCE 1941!

The Michigan Department of Health and Human Services just released new data on births in Michigan for 2018, showing a continuation of the trend of decreasing births that began in 2000. The 110,093 births recorded in 2018 is the lowest since 1941 and represent a decrease of 28.1 percent since their recent high of 153,080, recorded in 1990.

A look at Southeast Michigan trends show a somewhat similar pattern in general, but with some interesting twists. Macomb County registered 9,189 births, the lowest of the last six years and a decrease of 12.5 percent since 1990’s high of 10,499. Oakland County also experienced a decrease, with 2018’s 13,152 births representing the lowest total in the last eight years and a decrease of 22.7 percent since 1990. In Wayne County, Detroit’s unique position leads me to separate it out and look at the 2 components – Detroit and Out-Wayne (the other 42 communities) – separately. In so doing, we find that Out-Wayne’s 13,613 births are down slightly from 2017, but still the second highest total since 2009. In spite of this, 2018 still represented a drop of 17.8 percent since 1990. Detroit’s 2018 total of 9,644 births represented an INCREASE of 225 over 2017. We will have to see if this is a momentary blip or the beginning of a trend that will accompany population growth. While the 2018 news is good, it still represents the second lowest total that I have found since 1950 (earliest record I have), and is 60 percent lower than 1990’s total of 24,129.

Michigan’s birth trends have been affected by both national and local factors – record low birth rates; women delaying marriage; smaller families; and Michigan’s continued inability (though improving) to retain and attract large numbers of persons in their childbearing years, resulting in a rapidly aging population.