Multiple Births by Regional Residents

According to data from the NYS Department of Health, out of approximately 32,600 births in the region during the period 2002 to 2011, more than 1,200 of those births involved a "plurality" of babies - or multiple birth in more colloquial terms. The graphic below gives you an idea what that means overall.

Here's the total number of multiple births in the region from 2002-2011. Click the graph to enlarge it.

CLICK TO ENLARGE

Declining Annual Birth Rates 2005-2012

As the two graphics below suggest, our region is following suit with both the state and the country when it comes to annual births. Each has seen a declining birth rate for some time. Click either to enlarge it.

CLICK TO ENLARGE

CLICK TO ENLARGE

A Regional Look at Recent Love and Marriage: Births and Marriages in the Past 12 Months

The infographic below is based on the 2012 Five Year Estimates of the American Communities Survey. Geographically it is based on the two primary PUMAs covering most of our two county region. It provides some insight into recent marriages and births over the past twelve months prior to the survey response.

Click to Enlarge

Fertility of Women in the United States and the Two County Region

The Census Bureau has released a new report on fertility of women in the United States. The report highlights three trends:

• Births to adolescents continues to decline;
• More than one in five women who gave birth in the last 12 months reported at the time of the birth that they were living in someone else's home; and
• While the majority of first births occur in marriages (as they have for decades), first births to young mothers is more likely to occur in a cohabitation relationship than a married one.

To see some local fertility data for the two county region, click below.

Click to Enlarge

2013 Population Estimates Released

The 2013 US Census Population Estimates were released today. The Census Bureau's Population Estimates Program (PEP) produces estimates of the population for the United States, its states, counties, cities, and towns. Demographic components of population change (births, deaths, and migration) are produced at the national, state, and county levels of geography. Additionally, housing unit estimates are produced for the nation, states, and counties.

These estimates are used in federal funding allocations, as survey controls, as denominators for vital rates and per capita time series, and as indicators of recent demographic changes. With each new release of annual estimates, the entire time series of estimates is revised for all years back to the last census. All previously published estimates are superseded and archived.

The table below shows the population estimates for counties in New York. It comes from the Cornell Program on Applied Demographics, which issues an entire report (viewable through that link) on the estimates.

Children of Cohabitation: Births in the Past Year to Married and Unmarried Partners

The American Communities Survey offers us a glimpse into the number of children born within the past year to married and unmarried parents. In addition, it also allows us to identify children born in the past year to unmarried, but partnered, females. The following table comes from the 2011  ACS Five Year Estimates for Herkimer and Oneida Counties.

Click to Enlarge

Note that about one in twenty females (ages 15 to 50) gave birth during this time frame - 5% in Herkimer County and 6% in Oneida County. Among those women, roughly 38% of births in the last year in Herkimer County were to unmarried women, and two thirds of those (or about 24% of ALL births) were to women with no partner in the household. In Oneida County, about 46% of births in the past year were to unmarried females, and roughly 3 out of 4 of those (overall about 33% of all births) were to females with no household partners.

Happy Birthday to Us ! Happy Birthday to Us !

I found this fascinating infographic on The Daily Viz about how common each day of the year is for birthdays in the United States. I say fascinating because while it is sort of interesting to look at your own birth date (mine happens to be January 1st) and see how unique or how common yours is, it is the patterns in the chart that intrigue me.

For example, clearly one of the most common months for births is September, and in particular mid-September to early October. Think about that... Nine months earlier is more or less Christmas and the New Year's holiday season.

Then there is the lack of births around July 4th. Lots of vacations, not just for pregnant moms but also for doctors around that holiday. The same thing can be said for the periods around Thanksgiving and Christmas.Obviously people's celebrations have impacts on the likelihood of scheduled, and unscheduled, births.

Then there is the one that most caught my eye. Instead of looking at months, look at the dates - horizontally across the graphic. The obvious date with the least births is the 13th of any month ! And imagine if it was a Friday the 13th at that !

So while an infographic can be just interesting to look at on the surface, they often tell even more about human activities and values than one might think at first glance !